i come off of vacation to find my cd drive and cd writer drive are not working.. my computer does not see them there.. and when i tried to install hardware.. it says the drivers are corrupt or missing.. so how do i install the drivers if the cd drives don't work? i have the cd's to them with the drivers...

i am running xp pro..

Originally posted by Devil Dog
i come off of vacation to find my cd drive and cd writer drive are not working.. my computer does not see them there.. and when i tried to install hardware.. it says the drivers are corrupt or missing.. so how do i install the drivers if the cd drives don't work? i have the cd's to them with the drivers...

i am running xp pro..

Download them off the net and install them.

You shouldn't need drivers for a CD Drive... it should work with regular drivers... try removing it in Device Manager and then Scan for Hardware Changes and let it take the stock ones.

If that doesn't work you might have a bad IDE cable... especially if both drives are on the same cable.

Since the system should see them like any HDD... During boot up, do they show in the drive list? If they do, then we can move on to Windows.

Are you running a multi drive array card or motherboard?

Originally posted by Entropy
If that doesn't work you might have a bad IDE cable... especially if both drives are on the same cable.

And if both are on the same cable, that's a really bad idea. You'll get your best performance for CD to CD work (copying) if they're on separate IDE cables.

Make sure you have your master/nigger settings correct. :D


(yes, that's a joke to any PC whiners)

Lemme guess...it's a Compaq. Go to their site and make sure your BIOS is up to date. I was having the same problem and updating the BIOS fixed it.

ok.. they are in the device manager.. with the yellow ! on them both.. so i un-installed the cd writer... put the disc in it.. then tried to re-install it....

it finds it.. but then it says.... "windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupt or missing. Code 39

i assume the cable is good if its finding it.... or did i just make an ass of myself..

from the device manager i tried to update the driver but it said that it could not find a better one...

no... not a compaq.. something a friend made.. amd processor.. been working great for a year now.. ugh..

i only have two ide slots on the mother board.. one to the zip drive.. and then these two run off of the other one..