Help! - drives missing

[Dramaqueen]

i wonder if you could possibly help. my computer has a dvd/cd drive as well as 4 card slots - marked as:
CF/Microdrive, SD/MMC, SM & MS/MS Pro
for some reason these drives are not showing in "my computer" and therefore cannot view camera images as i can't find the drives.

How can i get them back? I have tried rebooting but to no avail

I'm on windows XP.
Also, my internet is going quite slow - i have had a trojan virus but this was picked up by Adware. Is there any other way i could speed it up? I'm on Pipex @ 576.0 kbps

thanks - any help appreciated as i would really like to view my holiday pics - it was working fine yesterday

 

[Me__2001]

run spybot S&D and microsoft antispyware if you haven't already, under device manager ( right click 'my computer' > properties > hardware tab> device manager) are there any exclamation marks ? does it show up under the USB devices ?

 

[Dramaqueen]

thanks for getting back so quickly - by the way i'm a technophobe, so make things easy for me.

i have looked where mentioned - there are no exclamation marks.
Under USB's i have
Standard enhanced PCI to USB host controller
Standard OpenHCD USB host controller
Standard OpenHCD USB host controller
Unknown device
USB printing support
USB Root Hub
USB Root Hub
USB root hub

this help any?
thanks
Dramaqueen

 

[Me__2001]

well the unknown device is more than likely the card reader, double click on it and click the driver tab, then update driver

 

[Dramaqueen]

wizard won't let me - says it doesn't have an updated version than what is on at the moment

 

[ChristopherP]

Uninstall it then install the driver?

 

[Me__2001]

try what chris has said first, ok try this, go to start> settings> control panel> add hardware, you may need to have a card in it

 

[Dramaqueen]

before i uninstall and reinstall - do i need relevant discs?

also, how do i get to spybot and microsoft antispyware

 

[Me__2001]

you shouldn't need any discs, if you have a system restore disc that came with the PC it may be worth searching that for the drivers

download the following

http://www.download.com/Spybot-Search-Destroy/3000-8022_4-10401314.html?tag=lst-0-1

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...A2-6A57-4C57-A8BD-DBF62EDA9671&displaylang=en

 

[Dramaqueen]

am trying all suggestions - will check everything with you tomorrow as i gotta go now - many thanks for your help so far. am at the stage of downloading spybot. feel very wary of uninstalling - seems so definite - what if it goes wrong?

 

[Dramaqueen]

help - i've uninstalled - how do i reinstall?

 

[Dramaqueen]

try what chris has said first, ok try this, go to start> settings> control panel> add hardware, you may need to have a card in it

did that, then what you suggested and it reinstalled the unknown device?? still no firther forward - any other suggestions guys?

 

[psd99]

does the device still come up as 'unknown' in your device manager?

did u install the drivers from the disk u were given?

 

[Dramaqueen]

yes, it still came up as unknown

everything was initially installed via discs etc by someone i know. i did not use a disc to reinstall - it just did it automatically when i went to add hardware.

could it be plugs/sockets or anything like that causing the problem? How does computer still read cd/dvd drive and not others?

 

[Raje]

yes, it still came up as unknown

everything was initially installed via discs etc by someone i know. i did not use a disc to reinstall - it just did it automatically when i went to add hardware.

could it be plugs/sockets or anything like that causing the problem? How does computer still read cd/dvd drive and not others?

Your cd/dvd drive is pretty different from your card readers. Your Hard drive and cd-rom drive are *most likely* attacthed to belt like cables known as IDE cables. As for your card reader, this acutally gets plugged direectly into your mother board onto a set of 8 pins. Your card reader is basically an adapted usb port.

---When you plug a card in to the card reader do the lights turn on???
if they do that is a good sign, most likely software issue which is relativly easy to fix, just frustrating.

----If no lights come on when inserting card, well, that is bad.
in that case, most likely hardware failure. Or loose cable, or bad leds. Just going to be a lot more annoying this way.

And remember, always remain calm....One way or another, you'll get it working, or replace it, not the end of the world either way.

 

[Dramaqueen]

----If no lights come on when inserting card, well, that is bad.
in that case, most likely hardware failure. Or loose cable, or bad leds. Just going to be a lot more annoying this way.

no lights i'm afraid

is the camera card slot referred to as a PCI?

Found this on the MESH help system - could this be what i need?

One of my PCI cards is not detected by the system, what can I do?

Check that the card is listed in device manager (control panel>system>device manager). If the card is not present in the list then check for a category called ‘other devices’. If this is present and you have a device listed showing a yellow exclamation mark then you need to reinstall the drivers from the original CD. If there is no ‘other devices’ category then the card is not being detected by the PC. You will need to open the case and firmly push the relevant card back into the PCI slot. Be sure to leave the power cable plugged in at the wall but powered off at the socket in order to earth the chassis and prevent static damage from your hands. Touch the grey area of the chassis in order to discharge static to ground. After reseating the card reboot the system, Windows should detect the card and install the drivers.

 

[Me__2001]

have you checked the device manager again ?

 

[Dramaqueen]

yup, still not there ????

 

[Raje]

No your card reader is not a pci item. Though you do perform the exact same trouble shooting steps. Just trace the cable from the back of the card reader to the motherboard. PCI are actaully the card that slide into the mother board, other than the video card which will be AGP or PCI-E. PCI and PCI-E are differenet, so do not be confused thier. An example of PCI card would be a....modem, wireless card, sound card. Though most machines have these intergrated, so really in my opinion, few if any pci cards are needed now adays. I have a modem card and a wireless card. Never use the modem card, but its nice to have.

No lights Not even a tiny blue or green one. Sounds like that cable is loose, or some kind of hardware is not working. The only thing that leaves me to sill belive it might not be hardware at this point is that unkown device in your device manager. But then again, if something like a USB port really fried, it may be unrcognised either. The mother board knows that something is plugged in, just not WHAT.

 

[Dramaqueen]

thaks for all - i've sent a message to MESH online help, hopefully they might also come up with something, it is still under warranty but i'm loathe to send it off - i'll let you know what they say - if anything!