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All Forums > Tech Talk > Tech Talk Forum Page 41 > Drives not being recognized?

Author	Post
ChodeMasterJ Perpetual Marxist 5405 Posts 4/03	Posted - Aug 5 2006 : 12:53AM Ok.....I've got a slight problem. My computer is not recognizing my cd-rw drive or my dvd drive. I had this problem before on my last computer and all I had to do was unplug the drives on the inside of the computer and plug them back in and that worked. Well I tried that on this computer and had no luck. When you turn the computer on, it also has like an error message that comes on that says that the drives aren't recognized. I burned a cd yesterday so this has just happened. Any ideas? It's a Dell PC, less than a week fucking old....that's about it. Should I have gotten a Mac? (haha) [Link]
Hardware All-Star Member Your other left 14594 Posts 3/02	Posted - Aug 5 2006 : 1:46AM Try putting in one drive at a time. [Link]
ChodeMasterJ Perpetual Marxist 5405 Posts 4/03	Posted - Aug 5 2006 : 1:52AM Hardware wrote: Try putting in one drive at a time. Click to expand not to sound stupid, but what do you mean when you say to try putting them in one at a time? When I pulled the long plugs on the backs of the drives (which were about 2 inches long and really skinny), I did them one at a time. Is that what you were talking about? thanks. [Link]
justalurker Member 241 Posts 8/03	Posted - Aug 5 2006 : 2:13AM What does the BIOS say? Do the lights on the drive lightup when you turn the computer on? If they do, do they remain lit? Edited by - justalurker on 8/5/2006 2:16:07 AM [Link]
ChodeMasterJ Perpetual Marxist 5405 Posts 4/03	Posted - Aug 5 2006 : 2:15AM justalurker wrote: What does the BIOS say? Click to expand what is the BIOS? [Link]

Hardware All-Star Member Your other left 14594 Posts 3/02	Posted - Aug 5 2006 : 2:19AM The point is to see if one of the drives is causing the problem, and the best way to do that is to only have one drive connected at a time. To do this, you need to make sure that the connected drive is telling the system that it's the 'master' device on that channel. There's usually a little jumper next to the data cable that's used to set that. Some newer drives will do it "automagically," but you should check their jumpers to be sure (and only one device can be the master). Also, does your Dell have a BIOS recovery option? If the BIOS is screwed up that could account for it not recognizing the drives, as well. [Link]
Hardware All-Star Member Your other left 14594 Posts 3/02	Posted - Aug 5 2006 : 2:23AM ChodeMasterJ wrote: what is the BIOS? Click to expand Basic Input Output System - it's where the devices in the computer get defined, and where Windows looks to see what devices are in the system. When you first boot up your PC there's a screen that says something like "Hit F2 for BIOS." Doing that will get you in where you can see what devices it recognizes as being attached to the system. [Link]
ChodeMasterJ Perpetual Marxist 5405 Posts 4/03	Posted - Aug 5 2006 : 2:43AM ok. i checked and the dvd-rom/cd-rw drive is the master. It's the top on one the tower. When I turned the computer on I don't think the light came on. On the slave drive, however, (the dvd-r, 2nd from the top of the tower), the light came on a stay on constantly for a few seconds and then went off. So does that mean that the master drive is screwed up? And on the BIOS thing. I checked when I started it up and the only thing it said was that I could hit F1 to skip setup and his F2 to go to setup. On the setup screen, there was a "drives" section and I went to that and all of the drives have an option of "on" or "off" and all of them are "on". Not sure if that info is of any use. Also on the BIOS thing.....I haven't seen any mention of BIOS on here with the exception of the "F1 or F2" screen I talked about at the beginning of the paragraph. It just talks about the copyright, though. I haven't seen any options or anything I could change or select in regards to the BIOS, though. And thanks for the help so far. [Link]
Hardware All-Star Member Your other left 14594 Posts 3/02	Posted - Aug 5 2006 : 3:06AM The "Setup" is the BIOS interface, I guess they figure calling it that is more user-friendly. So, were the CD and DVD drives listed in "Setup?" I'm not that familiar with Dell (thank God) but normally a drive is automatically de-listed in Setup if it isn't visible. [Link]
ChodeMasterJ Perpetual Marxist 5405 Posts 4/03	Posted - Aug 5 2006 : 3:15AM yeah they were listed on the setup screen. you could go down and expand the drives list to see them. it had one for the hard drive, the dvd-rom/cd-r, and the dvd-r. it was on that screen when you selected the specific drive where you could put them "on" or "off". All of my drives had the "on" selection highlighted. Jesus christ....this is pissing me off. [Link]
Hardware All-Star Member Your other left 14594 Posts 3/02	Posted - Aug 5 2006 : 3:19AM OK, try this - go back in and pull the power plug from the slave DVD-R drive and see if that gets the DVD-ROM working. [Link]
ChodeMasterJ Perpetual Marxist 5405 Posts 4/03	Posted - Aug 5 2006 : 3:32AM ok. on the back of the slave drive I unplugged what I think is the power supply.....it's the one plug that's about 2 inches long and it's the only thing that can come unplugged. There's a smaller plug or connection that is about the size of a normal USB input, but I tried and tried and tried and that one didn't want to come out. I turned the computer off and turned it back on and I still got the same screen telling me that the drives weren't found and to go to F2 for the setup. I double-checked and put in a disk and checked in My Computer and it's still not recognizing them. this is starting to get aggrevating....i'm more pissed off with the fact that it's 5 days old and I'm already having problems with it. again, thanks for the help. [Link]
Hardware All-Star Member Your other left 14594 Posts 3/02	Posted - Aug 5 2006 : 3:37AM That was the data cable, but it should have been as effective in making the drive invisible to the system. OK, to check the other drive by itself you need to set it to "Master." I don't know if you can do that without removing it but, if you can, then unplug the other drive and see what happens. If the system doesn't recognize that, either, then about the only thing I can suggest short of sending the PC back to Dell is to delete the drives from Windows "System" and see if they work when Windows rediscovers them. Of course, you'll need to set the DVD-R drive back to being "Slave" so there aren't two "Masters" on the same line. [Link]
ChodeMasterJ Perpetual Marxist 5405 Posts 4/03	Posted - Aug 5 2006 : 3:51AM Hardware wrote: That was the data cable, but it should have been as effective in making the drive invisible to the system. OK, to check the other drive by itself you need to set it to "Master." I don't know if you can do that without removing it but, if you can, then unplug the other drive and see what happens. If the system doesn't recognize that, either, then about the only thing I can suggest short of sending the PC back to Dell is to delete the drives from Windows "System" and see if they work when Windows rediscovers them. Of course, you'll need to set the DVD-R drive back to being "Slave" so there aren't two "Masters" on the same line. Click to expand gaahhh. I think I'm gonna stop before I mess anything up more. My mom knows a guy from work that does MIS stuff, so I think she's gonna get him to swing by in a few days. I seriously appreciate all the help and time that you gave me. Thanks a bunch!! [Link]
Hardware All-Star Member Your other left 14594 Posts 3/02	Posted - Aug 5 2006 : 3:57AM No problem. Good luck. [Link]

Bill All-Star Member 5334 Posts 6/00	Posted - Aug 5 2006 : 8:25AM If your PC's brand new, I would call Dell. Even if they can't help you, at least you will have it on record that you are having a problem with your drives before you start changing settings. You don't want them to have any excuse to be able to blame you for the problem. [Link]
BigBobxxx Senior Member 2681 Posts 5/04	Posted - Aug 5 2006 : 11:17AM Did you add one of these drives to your computer yourself? I've seen people add second optical drives where the jumper settings on the second drive (the one they added) are wrong. As a result, both optical drives (which are on the same ribbon connector) become disabled. If you have a "week old" new computer, running XP, the jumper settings on BOTH drives should be set to "Cable Select." Forget about "Master" and "Slave" settings. One of the main reasons the drive conflict occurs, is when someone brings an optical drive over from an older computer (which is perfectly OK to do), but fails to change the jumper settings for use in the new machine. What model Dell do you have? [Link]
ChodeMasterJ Perpetual Marxist 5405 Posts 4/03	Posted - Aug 7 2006 : 3:03AM It's a Dell Demension E310. I didn't install either of the drives...they were installed at the factory. i combed through the dell support site and didn't find anything of any use, so I'm gonna get that dude my mom knows to look it over. Thanks for the suggestions.....this is further strengthening my hate for Dell. [Link]
justalurker Member 241 Posts 8/03	Posted - Aug 7 2006 : 9:54PM Sound like at least one of the drives is dead. I would call Dell as Bill suggested, it's under warranty might as well use it. [Link]

All Forums > Tech Talk > Tech Talk Forum Page 41Drives not being recognized?

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