CD/DVD rom MIA

[KEK]

I have a IBM thinkpad R40 with XP home and the factory CD/DVD drive in it.
The drive is getting power and will spin when a disk is inserted but aborts
after a few seconds. I also can't find the drive in the Device Manager,
Explorer, or My Computer. This has been happening on and off for a few
months, but it would come back usually after a restart. Yesterday the drive
would appear after a restart if I searched for it immediately upon start up.
Now it's completely AWOL, I can't find it anywhere. I've tried everything I
can think of including:
Restarts
Entire troubleshoot protocol from Help and Support
Filter limit changes - I don't have the filter limits, tried creating them,
nothing changed
Physically removing/replacing the device multiple times and ways

And to top it all off, I don't have a system backup.

If anyone has any ideas, I would love to hear them as I'm at my wit's end.

Thank you for any suggestions

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, KEK.

I also can't find the drive in the Device Manager,
Explorer, or My Computer.

Can you find it in Disk Management? There you can assign it a drive letter.
Windows Explorer should be able to find it then.

There are several ways to get to Disk Management. Maybe the easiest is to
click Start and then type: diskmgmt.msc

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64)

 

[KEK]

Thanks for your suggestion. I looked in Disk Management and it's not in
there either. I also forgot to add that in the past few months when the
drive was recognized it read CDs and DVDs just fine. If you have anymore
suggestions I would love to hear them. Thanks again.

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, KEK.

Similar problems have been posted here recently and I haven't seen a clear
resolution yet. Some have suggested that a recent Windows Update caused
this kind of problem, but I have all updates and have had no such problem.
I've never had a ThinkPad or any other laptop, but I don't see how that
would make any difference.

In addition to Microsoft sources, have you asked IBM support? It could be a
hardware problem, of course, since you say the drive appears intermittently.
Anything from loose or kinked cables to a dead drive. :>(

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64)