Win XP Does Not See CD-ROM Drive

[Al]

I recently installed Win XP Home on a Pentium III PC ... everything appears
to work fine but the ability of XP to see a CD-ROM drive. I have tried to
get the "New Hardware Wizard" to properly install the drive, to no avail.
What happens is that the Wizard does install the drive for the current
operating session, but Win XP fails to see it when I reboot. Also, Win XP
does not see the drive if I put a CD into the drive until after I have again
run the Wizard. The CD-ROM drive does work properly when XP sees it. It
also ran and was configured properly when using Win 98. Any thoughts?

 

[Sherman]

I recently installed Win XP Home on a Pentium III PC ... everything appears
to work fine but the ability of XP to see a CD-ROM drive. I have tried to
get the "New Hardware Wizard" to properly install the drive, to no avail.
What happens is that the Wizard does install the drive for the current
operating session, but Win XP fails to see it when I reboot. Also, Win XP
does not see the drive if I put a CD into the drive until after I have again
run the Wizard. The CD-ROM drive does work properly when XP sees it. It
also ran and was configured properly when using Win 98. Any thoughts?

Just some obvious thoughts. Did you try swapping the CD-Rom with another?
Have you replaced the IDE cable to the drive? Did you check to see if it is
listed in the BIOS? Does it have the jumper set correctly, (master, slave,
cable select)?

 

[Al]

The CD-ROM is listed in the BIOS, jumpers properly set, cable good ... all
good suggestions. I just looked at the Registry before running the Wizard
and no CD-ROM info appeared ... then I ran the Wizard and looked again ...
the drive was there ... with the same info shown for a CD-ROM on another
computer. What I can't get Win XP to do, it seems, is to write a new copy
of the Registry when I shut down. Very irritating!!!

 

[R. McCarty]

You might try this..
Open Device Manager, Click View, Tic "Show Hidden Devices".
Expand the DVD/CD Rom Devices - Uninstall any units shown
as grayed out. Then Expand the IDE/ATAPI controllers category.
I'm assuming your CD-ROM is on the Secondary controller. If so,
then Uninstall the Secondary controller. Reboot, it should enumerate
both the Secondary controller and then the CD-ROM attached to it.

 

[Al]

Good Morning, All,

I did what R McCarty wrote ... the DVD/CD caption does not show up in Device
Manager after reboot ... so I was not able to delete any grayed out items
.... they simply don't appear. The goofy thing is that when I run the New
Hardware Wizard the drive works flawlessly, but the registry entries do not
survive a reboot. Also, RM, when the New Device Wizard runs, it shows the
CD drive as one of the possible hardware selections to choose from and when
I choose it it installs just for that session!!! I have had NO trouble with
the upgrade in any other way. How do I force XP to back up its registry???