Dead CDROM?

[Sharlie]

My CD-ROM doesn't work at all. I have a Dell Windows XP. In Dell diagnostics, I checked the CD-ROM & it's driver. Both passed. The Dell resource disc worked from CD-ROM in diagnostic (prior to Windows start- up.) I uninstalled & reinstalled, etc, but the CD-ROM is still dead. Tried using a USB CD-ROM but it had the same problem finding the CD-ROM. * Had noticed the B:// drive that once held CD-Rom is gone & this may be why the drivers can't find it. Yes? So how do I make the C:// or A:// drive back into A://B://C:// drives & load CD-Rom back into it?

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Well I don't know what the hell is going on here Sharlie but drive letter allocation for A: and B: are for machines that had twin floppy disk drives.

 

Disconnect the external cdrom drive and throw us a screen shot of what it says in Disk Management via Manage Attachments please.

[Sharlie]

Sorry about my lack of information. Also about not finding the Post & thinking this worked like a chatline!

My XP had an A:// for old floppy's, a B:// for DVD/CD rewritable, & , of course, C://.

My hardware mgr has a - in front of CD-ROM & an ! in front of the driver. I downloaded a new driver from Dell & installed it. The install wizard said there was nothing wrong with the old driver but I installed anyway, tried rollback, too, but still no CD-ROM & no B://. I tried to install a USB CD-ROM but it only loaded the driver so went to Dell diagnostics (iffy at best) & ran a diagnostic on the new USB: failed tests, driver passed. Ran diagnosticas on installed CD-ROM & it's driver & they both passed.

The Dell resource CD worked in the installed CD-ROM in diagnostic but the CD-ROM was dead again when I started up windows. Completely uninstalled the USB CD-ROM.

Have already tried the uninstall/reinstall on installed driver. Friend told me I couldn't get the B:// back until the computer recognized the CD-ROM & has gotten about 10 books on the XP to see how to solve the problem but is no tech. Is there a way to reinstall the CD-ROM in my PC? Other suggestion?

[Guest Wolfeymole]

For the moment ok let's forget about this USB cdrom drive.

 

Has someone renamed the drive letter to B: at any time?

 

Completely uninstall the onboard cdrom drive in Device Manager, it will ask if you are sure, say yes.

 

Restart the system and let XP find the "new" hardware again.

[Sharlie]

I sent a reply but seem to have misplaced it.

I've installed/reinstalled several times.

I ran the Dell Resource cd in my CD-ROM & it passed both the CD rom & it's driver. In seek, it found.

In My Computer C:// Hardware, it lists the A:// floppy & the CD-ROM w/driver but no letter designation.

I proceeded to Computer Mgmt in Admin tool, then to disk mgmt, which listed drives. C:// is partitioned in 3 parts, but the other 2 partitions are listed as

Basic Fat (EISA configuration) &

Basic FAT32 (Unknown..)

Neither have letter designations to change.

My friend asks what if we take the CD-ROM out of the inside of the PC, plug in the PC so it thinks it has no CD-ROM, then re-install the CD-ROM & turn the PC back on. Will it load the CD-ROM like a new one & assign a letter to it?

[Sharlie]

Established the CD-ROM problem was not the hardware. Dell told me the CD-ROM was dead, which is why I bought the USB CD-ROM. Went to Microsoft Solution for XP & there was the fix for it's disappearance. Ran MS Fix it 50027. Restarted my PC & there it is, back in My Computer: DVD/CD ROM D://

Microsoft also has a fix for USB's that don't work but mine is going back to Dell.

Thank you for the suggestions.

 

END PROBLEM