CD ROM Not detected by computer/BIOS

Hi everyone! This has been going on for a couple months and I have searched the internet high and low for help but nothing has worked. One night, my computer decided to not show the D:/ and E:/ Drives anywhere. I have done the registry edit that is on the dell/hp websites, I have replaced the cords and even the CD-ROMs themselves with other ones, but they don't work. I am assuming it has to do with the motherboard and my computer isn't on warranty so Dell won't fix it. How much do you think it will cost to get it fixed at a local computer repair shop? Or, how can I fix it myself? Thanks everyone!

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That's a rather odd problem. Try doing a BIOS update, what's your Make (Dell?) and model, I'll find a link for ya . If that doesn't work, try to re-install windows, that should help

I did a BIOS update earlier today from Dell, it's a Dimension 2400 with A05 BIOS version... How would I reinstall windows if I can't use the CD...

You could use an external DS drive, or create XP Floppy disks

go here: bootdisks.com lol

Did you by chance mean bootdisk.com? I am trying it now, do you know how many floppy disks I will need?

whoops, lol, yeah... Im not sure tell you the truth. your best bet is to: install Win98SE, upgrade to XP

Okay, I'll try 98 and hopefully it will work or I might not be able to get XP back...

Okay, the xp bootdisk just started up my computer as normal, and the 95/98 disks wouldn't work because it serched for a CD-ROM and couldn't find it so it aborted the setup. Any other suggestions? Could I copy all of the files from the XP CD (600 mb) to a 1gb sd card with a mem. card reader and run that on my computer instead of the CD or will that not work?

This isnt an OS problem, its just hardware, take out your cd drives and cables, the whole lot, and then check the switch thing on the back, my bet is both are set to slave or both are set to master, change them both to cable select or one as slave and one as master, and see how ya get on.

Robb, where did that link for boot disks come from?

Here's the right one: How to obtain Windows XP Setup boot disks

I'll look at that in a minute.
Edit:Okay, I found what you were talking about, the diagram is here, this is what it looks like: There is a white connector on both of the CD-ROMs and they were already both set to cable select. I moved the top drive to slave and the bottom drive to master but it still doesn't work. I'll try to set the top to master and bottom to slave. Thanks for all your help.

Originally Posted by Mark

This isnt an OS problem, its just hardware, take out your cd drives and cables, the whole lot, and then check the switch thing on the back, my bet is both are set to slave or both are set to master, change them both to cable select or one as slave and one as master, and see how ya get on.

Nope, it still didn't work. Any more ideas?

Oh yeah... by the way, they both get power from the computer (They both open and close, and when it closes it spins) but the computer doesn't read them or any CD's I put into them. Also, when I went into setup whil the computer was turning on, it said CD-ROM - Not Found. I have tried the drives both as cable, the top one as master and bottom as slave, bottom as master and top as slave, I have tried just one of them plugged into the master cords and set to master, I have tried the other one the same way and nothing works. As I said before, I have also tried other Drives that I know work and I put them into this computer and the still don't work, so the only thing I can think of is something wrong with the motherboard which I can't imagine why because nobody ever did anything with the motherboard except install the flopppy drive, but the CD--ROM drives still worked for months after we installed the floppy drive. Anybody else have any ideas? I don't think it has anything to do with what Mark said though it was a good idea. It is strange because they both came with the computer about 2 years ago and they both worked perfectly until recently when they both stopped working, and it actually happened just soon after the warranty ran out.

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Did you try to run setup with the floppy set i linked you to? At this point it's a long shot, but that's how i fixed a similar problem on a friend's comp after sp2 made his cd drives quit. The difference was his comp was old, almost too old to run xp. It's just a guess but if you decide to try it, make sure you get the right set for your service pack. Edit: i'm sure you checked that the ide cables were tightly plugged in and not upside down... But worth mentioning...

Well, most of my floppy disks are broken so I only have 2 that will work and yeah the IDE cords are plugged in tightly.

Yeah that's a six-disk set, I had to go buy a box when I fixed my friend's computer. Like I said, it would be a long shot but when you run out of things to try, at least you have one last option before you a) spend a bunch of money at a repair shop, or b) hurl it out the door as far as you can throw

Well, I just ordered a Dell B130 for a little less than $500 with built in wireless and a free upgrade to 1gb RAM which is twice as much as in my desktop! A little lower processor speed (1.5GHz) so I'm happy.

Option 2:

Go into your bios setup, and go to IDE config or something like that, depends on your BIOS, and check that the drives aren't turned on, look for primary master/slave, secondary master/slave something like that, and check that they're set to AUTO.