DVD drive not recognized...Help!
 

I have a DVD drive and a DVD-R drive. I tried to burn a DVD for the first time the other day. I put the DVD in the DVD drive and the DVD-R in the DVD-R drive and opened Nero. I hit the start copying thing and my comp froze. I rebooted, and my computer no longer recognized my DVD drive. It wasn't in device manager or my computer. It won't even eject my DVD.

I know the DVD drive works fine. I've watched DVD's and listened to CD's on it many times before.

I really need some help here soon. The DVD I was trying to burn isn't mine and its proper owner is getting kind of impatient waiting for me to eject it.

Thanks in advance!

Restart the computer and go into your BIOS. Does the BIOS see the drive you're talking about and the other drives connected to your computer?

If so, its a Windows problem. Might go rt. click on my computer (here i'm assuming you're using XP), go to Manage, then to Disk Management. Your hdd and cdroms should all show up there.

By BIOS do you mean hitting delete as the computer boots?

If so, then no. It's not recognized.

If not, please explain a bit more. I'm not up to standards with computer knowledge :thumbsup:

Delete the old driver and reinstall it. You can pretty much download one from anywhere. (If you don't already have a driver on a floppy) Usually windows will have a generic driver embedded in windows that you can use. Have you tried going into add new hardware under the control panel yet? That's what I'd do if a reboot didn't make windows see it. Even if there's no driver to the drive you should be able to just open the door with the power plugged in. If you can't at least do that, then it just might be dead.

open up your case and make sure the power is firmly plugged in and the ide cable (the ribbon cable) is connected properly to the motherboard and the drive. sometimes from moving the case stuff gets wiggled loose. I've had problems like this before.

^^ what he said.

If its not showing in the BIOS then its probably a lose cable and although installing new drivers for it would be fun and exciting... it wont help the BIOS find the drive.

Chances are its the power cable if it wont eject your dvd... If you open it up and the cable is secure... then try using a different molex connector...

The green light on the drive is illuminated. Power isn't the problem. Also, I can't reinstall the driver because I have nothing to uninstall. It's not showing up ANYWHERE.

If the LED is on and its not showing up then its definitely either a faulty ribbon cable or a loose ribbon cable.

Alright, I'll crack open the case and have a look.

Hardknock, if his BIOS can't see it, then there isn't anyway Windows is going to magically make it appear.

double-check your jumpers while you have that case open.

and (assuming you have the hdd space) you can rip the dvd to hdd until you get this sorted.

and don't just look at the ide cables - push them in! sometimes they go in hard ... sometimes they go crooked ...

The DVD is stuck in the unrecognized drive. I can't rip it :|

yes, you can. because it's not stuck ;)

look on the front (face) of the drive, for a little round hole. undo a paperclip, and stick it in the hole until the tray opens enough for you to grab it and pull it out completely.

then just stick the dvd into your dvd-r(w) drive and there ya go :)

Since he didn't specify that his BIOS wasn't seeing it (not to mention he doesn't have a clue as to what he doing) it's hard to diagnose the problem.

Sprite, you never said if the BIOS saw the drive.

Sounds to me like he looked in the BIOS and didn't see it.

That is good news!
:thumbsup: