DVD Drives Not Recognized

[Don Q]

Hello all,

I currently own a Dell XPS 600 system. The system includes the two drives. One is CD, another DVD. The DVD drive is known as "Sony DVD-ROM DDU1615".

My problem is the following. I am trying to install a new hardrive on this system, as the original one it brought is now defective. To install the hardrive, I must boot from CD. However, the motherboard for some reason doesn't recognize the drive as it states "not present". How can this be possible, when I game everyday and am able to watch DVD movies with no problems?

In other words, the drive can play games and movies, but somehow it isn't recognized when I try to boot from it. I would also like to note that this all started happening after I did a case cleanup and plugged out all cables. Let me asure you that I correctly plugged them back in, and everything works flawlessly except this.

Any help would be appreciated as I need to resolve this as soon as possible.

Thanks.
DQ

[abtomat74]

Re: DVD Drives Not Recognized

Did you change your BIOS to "boot from CD" first? It might be set on "boot from HD"
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incorrectly read your DVD drive as being the problem...deleted my useless info.

[megawhompertoo]

Re: DVD Drives Not Recognized

Start by verifying that the jumpers are in the correct configuration. I've spent--no lie--hours getting the right configuration when using four IDE devices. (Course, now I know better--leave the pc open and on top of the desk until everything works for sure, then leave 'er there for another week, then put the covers back on and put 'er under the desk).

You really shouldn't have to "install" a drive under windows xp w/sp2 if the drive is detected by the bios. Oh...please confirm whether or not you see the drive when you enter the bios...? If you do see the drive, there are some tools under XP that you can use create a logical partition, assign a letter, etc. It's a very easy process. Need to know if your hardware sees the drive first, though!

[Don Q]

Re: DVD Drives Not Recognized

Thanks for the replies.

I'm a tad lost with some of the things said above (sorry ) but I can do verify that yes, both drives appear (are recognized) under device manager. In fact, when I click on them it says:

Manufacturer: (Standard CD-ROM drives)
Location: Location 1 (1)
Device Status: This device is working properly.

Again, the only problem I'm encountering is that I can't boot from CD.

[abtomat74]

Re: DVD Drives Not Recognized

Thanks for the replies.

I'm a tad lost with some of the things said above (sorry )

Again, the only problem I'm encountering is that I can't boot from CD.

Go into your BIOS.

Find the area that determines what order your computer boots. The options will be your CD drive, your DVD drive, your hard drive, or your floppy drive for example.

You need to change the "boot order" to the drive that is going to have the windows disc in it. Is it your CD or your DVD? Make it so.

Your manual should tell you how to get into your BIOS, or simply pay attention to what button it says to push before the Windows XP logo appears on your screen.

If the only problem you are having is not being able to boot from the CD, then the above is what needs to be done.
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Your original post is somewhat confusing:

you're talking about the Hard Drive here:

"To install the hardrive, I must boot from CD...the motherboard for some reason doesn't recognize the drive as it states "not present""

What isn't present? Your new Hard Drive or the CD/DVD drive? I assume the HD of course. You need to specify which and not use the word drive as we have 3 drives in question being spoken about in this thread(HD, CD, DVD).
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now you're talking about your optical(CD/DVD) drive?

"How can this be possible, when I game everyday and am able to watch DVD movies with no problems?...In other words, the drive can play games and movies, but somehow it isn't recognized when I try to boot from it."
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Again, based on your last post of not being able to boot the CD...it's the boot order, until you can retype your post and clarify the term "drives" for us.

[Lamri35UK]

Re: DVD Drives Not Recognized

This might be really silly and I apologise if it is useless, but have you tried more than one bootable cd/dvd ?
Maybe you are trying to boot from a cd/dvd than you can't boot from.
just a thought.

[megawhompertoo]

Re: DVD Drives Not Recognized

You need to change the "boot order" to the drive that is going to have the windows disc in it. Is it your CD or your DVD? Make it so.

>...Your original post is somewhat confusing:...<

What he said and said again. :)

Since the drive is seen by both the bios and by windows, you're really home free with your installation. Going into your bios and forcing your pc to boot from CD as described ^ should allow you to install M$ Window$.

If all else fails, I can mail you Ubuntu on a flash drive...

/poor attempt at humor

Edit: my dell dimension 4500 at work (aren't working holidays great) bios 5.2 shows options under the "Boot" tab, submenu "Boot device priority", and gives you the option to select ATAPI CD-ROM. In any event, if you place the optical drive(s) at a higher priority than the HD, then it will force the pc to try to boot from the CD.

The sony DVD drive is an eide model...this ought to be a piece of cake.

[Don Q]

Re: DVD Drives Not Recognized

Guys, please understand that I thank you very much for attentively trying to solve my problem. However, I think we are still on different pages.

I KNOW how to acess my BIOS and change the boot sequence. When I go to this boot sequence "page" I see that it shows
1)Hard drive
2)Floppy drive (yes, I have one just in case :p)
3)Onboard USB device
4) DVD/CD ROM drives (not present).

See, if I were to have the program I need on a USB flash drive I'd have no problems at all. The problem is that the CD ROM drives shows that "not present" message in my BIOS. So even if I force it as the first thing to boot it won't work! It will just go ahead and boot windows from my current hardrive.

That being said, the CD/DVD drives successfully play games and movies. In simple words: I KNOW how to change the boot sequence so that my system boots from CD. However, it will not allow me to even though I know both CD/DVD drives work as I play movies and games on them daily.

Hopefully that's clear now, I'm really trying to explain the situation to the best of my ability. Once again, thanks guys.

EDIT: I found another boot menu (by pressing F12) and the neither the DVD or CD drive appear as an option.

[megawhompertoo]

Re: DVD Drives Not Recognized

I KNOW how to acess my BIOS and change the boot sequence. When I go to this boot sequence "page" I see that it shows
1)Hard drive
2)Floppy drive (yes, I have one just in case :p)
3)Onboard USB device
4) DVD/CD ROM drives (not present).

See, if I...

sry...I'm kind-of-an-8-or-12-pack past qualified trouble shooting but there is your porlem...ack...ack...problem.

As previously detailed. You may need to adjust jumpers but if the bios AND window$ is seeing your drive, it looks like you'd just need to tell the bios who to talk to first.

Did you try setting the bios to boot from cd/dvd and not from...ANYTHING...else?

[abtomat74]

Re: DVD Drives Not Recognized

100% clear now.

Go with megas solution, the jumpers...can't think of anything else at the moment myself, as you said it does show in the device manager.

You could also try re-installing the DVD drive AFTER checking the jumpers per megas advice. Let Windows redo the driver for it.