CD /DVD Drives do not show or work

[waxace]

We have two factory installed drives.
One DVD and One Cd-rw.
Both do not show up anywhere when booting up.
They are not on the list and or do not show in my computer or anywhere.
They are connected as I checked the cables and all. When I put in a cd in
each one, the light goes on and blinks but nothing happens.
They DO NOT show up at all in the device manager.
Am I missing something here? Seems they should work....

On Dell 4550
Windows XP Home XP2

 

[Malke]

We have two factory installed drives.
One DVD and One Cd-rw.
Both do not show up anywhere when booting up.
They are not on the list and or do not show in my computer or anywhere.
They are connected as I checked the cables and all. When I put in a cd in
each one, the light goes on and blinks but nothing happens.
They DO NOT show up at all in the device manager.
Am I missing something here? Seems they should work....

On Dell 4550
Windows XP Home XP2

When you say the drives "do not show up anywhere when booting up", does
that mean they don't show up in the BIOS? If the drives don't show up in
the BIOS this is a hardware issue. The first and easiest thing to do is
turn off the machine and unplug it. Now open it and reseat the cable
ribbon connectors to the drive and to the motherboard. Test. If the
drives still don't show up, swap out the cable for a known-working one.
Test. If they still don't show up, the connector on the motherboard is
faulty. Contact Dell tech support for repair/replacement. If the machine
is elderly and out of warranty, it will probably not be worth replacing
the motherboard but you should check with Dell for exact costs.


Malke

 

[Ace]

We have two factory installed drives.
One DVD and One Cd-rw.
Both do not show up anywhere when booting up.
They are not on the list and or do not show in my computer or
anywhere. They are connected as I checked the cables and all. When I
put in a cd in each one, the light goes on and blinks but nothing
happens. They DO NOT show up at all in the device manager.
Am I missing something here? Seems they should work....

On Dell 4550
Windows XP Home XP2

Perhaps the drives were disabled in the motherboard's BIOS setup?