cd rom help

He has: 12 posts

Joined: May 2004

hello
i have a dell comptuer that has two cd roms a burner and a reg rom
i replaced my viedio card while back and when i restarted my computer my cd roms say the are not installed i didnt mess with the roms at all just teh card so what do i do i tried unpluging them and pluging back in hoping they would be plug and play but nope dont work and i cant use a cd to install them because they arent working so what do i do any direction would be helpfull
thanks
schaefer

Suzanne's picture

She has: 5,507 posts

Joined: Feb 2000

Call Dell.

He has: 12 posts

Joined: May 2004

i looked in bios and it said cdroms not installed
dell too much money to call them was hoping some good free help in here
seems like a lot of smart people in here

mairving's picture

They have: 2,256 posts

Joined: Feb 2001

As Bob said, check your cables. It sounds like it is pulled out at the motherboard since neither one is working.

compwolf's picture

He has: 72 posts

Joined: Nov 2003

A little more info may be helpful ...

1) What connections are the CD Drives (IDE, USB, SCSI ... etc)?
2) What OS are you using?
3) If some of the connections are USB is the power supply firmly installed?
4) If some are IDE are any of the cables loose or cockeyed where they are plugged in?

When you checked the BIOS did you mean the Boot sequence is not recognizing or are they not listed in the Drive section of the BIOS. It is not uncommon to not see them listed in the BIOS Drive section of the Bios since many BIOS will do an auto detect rather than a set configuration for CDRom drives. AS for the OS depending on certain other Items first you may want to check to see if the software itself is even recognizing them (USB). Most likely there is a loose connection somewhere. or you may just need to enable the ESD update function in the BIOS.

More Information will help greatly in trying to Debug your issue.

They have: 83 posts

Joined: Apr 2004

I Think its a cable attached to your mother board that popped out. The same thing happened to me on my DELL. I spent a long time tring to figure out what was going on before I checked the cables. I guess DELL just makes cheap cable connectors.

He has: 12 posts

Joined: May 2004

well thanks for the help
i am running window xp
the rom is connected via what ever factory install them as i havent changed them
i tried moving wires around but no luck looks like all wires are still in good
as far as bios i just went into the bios from the start hit the f8 key is that the bios i should be looking in
it says under cdroms (not installed)
the drawers pop open and one goes in and stays in while other one keeps poping back open and the lights on the roms both light up then goe off after a bit
sorry to be a pain but you guys are great helping a guy out that you dont even know
hope to get this straighend out

my first web site:
http://www.twincitiesracing.net

compwolf's picture

He has: 72 posts

Joined: Nov 2003

The first thing I am wondering is whether the boot screen (Where you see the memory count) is showing the CD drives after it recognizes the Hard Drive. More than likely it is not ... I am betting that your issue is either Bad Cable or bad controller. The Drive tray popping in and out is an indication that there is most likely an issue with the connections. To test this theory you will want to unplug the ribbons (while the machine is off) leaving only the power plugged in. The drives will power up but the machine will not recognize them. If the tray will open and close properly after it has booted then it is definitely isolated in the ribbon or the onboard controller. If the Drive tray still does the pop open trick you may have a faulty drive.

Once you have ran the test of the ribbons make sure to shut the computer off (full shutdown) then check the placement of the cables. The red stripe on the cable will always be on the same side as the power on the drive ... the other end will face the same direction as the ribbon that goes to your Hard drive on the mother board. Be sure to check that there are no bent pins on any of the plugins. Also be sure that the Master and Slave are on the right plugs and the Jumpers are correct ... the jumper settings should be OK unless they were changed for some reason during the checking out of the machine.

If you still cannot have the drives recognize, try going into your BIOS and look under peripheral management and verify your settings. You should be able to reset everything to it's default/optimal settings if any unusual changes seem to be in effect. Under advanced options/PCI Plug-n-Play usually you will find the ESCD options ... Set this to enable (it only does on the Next Reboot) this dumps all of the saved infomation about your PCI Stuff (Where the Bridge information and peripherals information is stored) and rescans for the changes.

Beyond these words of wisdom you will need to take it to a tech in person for them to discover the issue. For your sake I hope it is only the Ribbon ...

Good luck

mairving's picture

They have: 2,256 posts

Joined: Feb 2001

Several years ago someone told me that in tech support you never ask 'Is it plugged in?' You always ask them to unplug it and plug it back in. So unplug the IDE ribbon cable from your motherboard and plug it back in.

Mark Irving
I have a mind like a steel trap; it is rusty and illegal in 47 states

Want to join the discussion? Create an account or log in if you already have one. Joining is fast, free and painless! We’ll even whisk you back here when you’ve finished.