Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in
Your question

Optical drive disappears if not in constant use.

Tags:
  • Dell Inspiron
  • SATA
  • Motherboards
  • Optical Media
  • Disappear
Last response: in Motherboards
Share
July 11, 2014 12:39:28 AM

I have not found a situation that resembles mine close enough to provide any solutions. I have a dell inspiron 518 serving as my HTPC. Motherboard unknown; Processor: intel core2 Duo E7200; Only upgrades are AMD Radeon HD5450 and ASUS BC 12B1ST (blu-ray). Windows 8

I first had what I thought was a failed DVD drive so I took the opportunity to upgrade to blu-ray. I then noticed that the new blu-ray drive would disappear if left unused. I now assume that this was the problem with the oem dvd drive. I have to do a hard restart (hold the power button until the pc shuts off) in order to get the drive to be visible again. I have replaced the sata cable and moved it to a different port but I get the same result.

As long as the drive is in use there is no issue. For instance when ripping my movie collection, which took a few days, there was no problems. The drive completely disappears from bios (which I can check if I do a soft restart (restarting with the windows start button).

I have also run dell's hardware scan with no errors.

I understand I could probably upgrade for dirt cheap but as an HTPC I have no problems whatsoever with the performance when fully functional. Also I put this in the Motherboard section because that is what I am suspecting. I figure the HDD stays connected because it is always in use unlike the optical drives.

Any help will be appreciated.

More about : optical drive disappears constant

a c 86 V Motherboard
July 11, 2014 1:08:04 AM

Go to control panel, look for "Device Manager" on the top right of your monitor and double click, your device manager will show you the status of all your plug & play devices, look for your cd/dvd player and click on the small dismond on the left and this should expand the device, if there are no conflicts or driver errors then OS recognizes the drive. If there is a small hazard warning sign in yellow with an exclamation mark then the drive is not recognized and that is an easy fix.
m
0
l
July 11, 2014 7:17:53 AM

prit87 said:
Go to control panel, look for "Device Manager" on the top right of your monitor and double click, your device manager will show you the status of all your plug & play devices, look for your cd/dvd player and click on the small dismond on the left and this should expand the device, if there are no conflicts or driver errors then OS recognizes the drive. If there is a small hazard warning sign in yellow with an exclamation mark then the drive is not recognized and that is an easy fix.


There are no errors. The drive either exists or does not. But yes I did revisit this option with your suggestion.
m
0
l
Related resources
a c 1531 V Motherboard
July 11, 2014 7:19:28 AM

Could be a bad Sata CABLE or the connections aren't snug , check them.

Also could be a defective Drive I had a ASUS optical do this and the drive was bad,
m
0
l
July 11, 2014 8:33:58 AM

SR-71 Blackbird said:
Could be a bad Sata CABLE or the connections aren't snug , check them.

Also could be a defective Drive I had a ASUS optical do this and the drive was bad,


That was my first thought. I replaced cable and switched port. Same result.
m
0
l
a c 1531 V Motherboard
July 11, 2014 8:35:02 AM

I would say the drive has the issue.
m
0
l
July 11, 2014 9:50:24 AM

SR-71 Blackbird said:
I would say the drive has the issue.


This drive is a replacement for a drive that had the same issues. The first drive was OEM.
m
0
l
!