Windows can't see CD or DVD drive

[SteveW]

I have inherited a relative's Dell Dimension 4300 because the HD stopped working. My kids have a very old machine running windows 98SE, but I had renewed the hard drive. I have put this HD into the Dell, still on Win98. The Dell was using XP but the XP discs are lost - so it has to be Win98.

 

My poblem is that the PC doesn't seem to recognise either the CD or DVD drives, and I can't add it to the wireless network etc etc etc without these drives. In device Manager they are not listed.

 

Can anyone help please? (keep it relatively simple if you can please)

[Jamey]

Inside the case of the Dell machine, look for the CD and DVD drives. Make sure that the ATA cable (usually grey, one connects into the mainboard of the computer, the other two are used for drives) is firmly pushed into the back of each drive. Also make sure that the white power cable is pushed in too. Finally, check that the ATA cables are connected firmly into the mainboard. It could be that during the hard drive upgrade you accidentally moved these out of place.

 

If that doesn't work, the drives jumpers could be setup incorrectly. Try moving the plastic jumper (at the rear of each drive) to the 'Cable Select' position. Make sure your computer is switched off and unplugged during all of this.

[the shed man]

hi, in device Manager next to the cd-rom/dvd-rw dose it have a yellow? at the side of it????

[Tony D]

Is this a Master/Slave or Cable Select system?

[maynardvdm]

Hi the first post was november last year so maybe he got it working :)

[AdvancedSetup]

Yes, please review the DATE of the POSTING and try not to drag up old threads that appear to have been lost or dropped by the original poster.

 

Thanks

[the shed man]

hi, i am sorry, i am new to this site..

[maynardvdm]

No problem. I just think if they havent come back for this long the problem was probably sorted. But keep posting away on any recent problems :) Good to see you have interests in this site :)