CD and DVD not being seen--a fix for a special case?

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

David--

I don't know if you've searched the MSKBs on this. They have a better
format now with related articles on the right and the ability to save your
KBs as favorites on their site.

Best,

http://tinyurl.com/6g43l

Chad Harris

_____________________________


<davidmack001@earthlink.net> wrote in message
newspBcd.6101$6k2.2959@newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net...
Lemme run this by the group:

Like many here, I suddenly found that XP SP2 wasn't seeing my DVD-ROM (D
and CD-RW (E drives upon starting up, either from a cold or warm boot.
The BIOS was OK, but nothing was in Device Manager--it's as if the drives
never existed.

I'll spare you (almost) everything I did to troubleshoot, but I finally
found that if I disconnected the CD-RW/E: drive, the DVD-ROM/D: drive was
properly seen by XP and worked fine. The reverse was not true--the CD-RW
drive is not seen, no matter what.

I confirmed that the power supply and ribbon cables work properly, and I'm
left with the conclusion that the CD-RW/E: drive is just busted; it doesn't
light up, doesn't spin, doesn't eject.

My question is, is this internally consistent, i.e. can a dead CD-RW drive
in series (I think it's in series) with another functional optical drive
cause both to appear nonfunctional?

A related question--in what order are devices chained together to the
motherboard by ribbon cables (e.g. MB ---> drive E ---> drive D)seen? D
then E or E then D?

Thanks!

Dave Mack