CD/DVD Drive

A

aKrippler

Gawd
Joined
Oct 17, 2007
Messages
770
So we've got this old computer at work, and my buddy tells me the CD drive has never worked on it. Well theres no reason it should so I open it up and yep everything is plugged in. Still nothing shows in the device manager. Its on its own ribbon, and set to master so that is fine.

For shits and giggles we pulled out a usb dvd drive and plugged it in. Nothing comes up at all, and I know the drive its self, as well as the USB ports on the computer work so I am at a loss. :(

Any ideas?? And thank in advance!! Make fun of me all you want for being on a hardware forum and getting lost in something as simple as this.
 
Not trying to be a smart ass, but is the power connector for the drive plugged in? Is there power in the connector?
 
Everybody makes rookie mistakes; been building computers since 1975 and I do it quite often, so, welcome to the club. :)

Obvious question: when the power is turned on, does the drive show activity (power light, vibration, etc), anything at all? If not, dead drive, and you're done.

If it powers up, put a disc in the tray and turn the actual disc so the label is in a position where you can easily read it - push the tray in and wait 10 seconds, then press Eject. If the disc comes out of the tray in exactly the same position, it hasn't turned at all, then the spindle motor is shot, dead drive, you're done.

If it spins up and still nothing, the only other thing that comes to mind is the cable - the drive could be set to Master but the cable could be one of those funky "Cable Select" ones that only works properly when the device is not only jumpered correctly but also attached to the Master connector (the middle one on a Jumper Select cable - Slave is the end). If it's jumpered for Slave and attached to the Master connector, same problem - no detection, no activity, nada.

If it IS a Cable Select cable it will have a tiny notch, an actual hole cut in it so you can see clean through it and the hole will be in the space between the two drive connectors - not on the mobo connector at the far end of the cable.

Try those things and see what happens and report back.
 
Another thing to check - does the device show up in the BIOS? If it doesn't show there, the OS sure won't see it....
 
Thank you everyone for the replies, I appreciate your time! :D

The drive has power, it blinks when I turn on the computer, and it takes discs and spins them.

I dont think the cable is a "master select" It has 2 connectors on one end but theres no hole.

And I dont see it in the Bios anywhere. I am guessing there must be something wrong with either the cable, or the slot on the mobo or something.

I could really care less if this drive works but I want to get this USB optical drive working, It works on the other computers in the shop I dont know why It wont work here. I plugged it in and I got something saying it detected new hardware but I cannot find it anywhere in the device manager. I even tried clicking the balloon that pops up near the toolbar but nothing comes up. The other computers dont even need the driver, plug it in and it works right away. This computer is acting like it needs the drivers but when I try to find the device its just not there to find.
 
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