CD-R/RW drive MIA

[Skelator]

I have a Compaq Presario 7479, am running Win XP and have a CD-R/RW as my only CDROM drive. Just recently it disappeared from Windows Explorer. The CDROM still has power and the tray still opens. I have checked the cable and everything is secure. I noticed yesterday when the computer was booting, it found the CDROM drive and asked me to confirm the changes. It then rebooted itself and this time while booting it said that the CDROM had been removed.

Any advice as to what my next trouble shooting step should be?

[Bovon]

The last time I had a simular problem, it turned out to be the ribbon cable. Those ribbon cables are a weak link..the sockets are just clamped to the ribbon and there are little needle like pins that penetrate the individual wire insulation...if any of these that fail to make good contact, and you have problems.

[Skelator]

I switched the ribbon cable. When the PC booted, it found the drive and then rebooted, this time to windows. However, Windows XP still does not see the drive and the add hardware wizzard does not see it either.

Are there any PC Diagnostics programs that might tell me if the drive is dying? Any advice would be much apreciated.

[BipolarBill]

If BIOS picks up the drive and Windows doesn't, it's likely toast.

One thing - have you installed new burner software or IDE drivers recently?

Check for bent or pushed-in pins.

[ukulele]

Boot to dos with a Win98 startup disk and see if it reads. If it doesn't then you have hardware problems.

[Skelator]

When I use a Win 98 boot disk it attempts to load the CD drivers and then says that there in no hardware found. Case closed, it's dead?

[Skelator]

Update

I decided that since the drive was dead, I would crack it open to see what was inside. After taking a good chunk of the drive apart, I decided to put it back together just to see if I could. After I had it reassembled, I threw it back in the CPU and rebooted. To my surprise, windows picked it up and I was able to burn off a few CDs today.

[BipolarBill]

Twas dust. You should blow out the drive.

[Rocketmech]

Amazing

[ukulele]

It was probably a cable. Unplugging it and plugging it back in can sometimes do the trick, or like Bill said, dust. Let's hope it holds.

[Plaster]

Don't rule out the Power Supply. How strong of a PSU are you using? I've seen drives get power long enough for the BIOS to see them, but shut off before reaching Windows. In each case it was too little power. Try taking out your sound card, NIC and unplug any other CD Drives you may have. If it shows up in Windows then you know it's a power issue. Since HDD's take a nice bit of power as well, you can try booting from the 98 CD with the HDD unplugged.

edit: heheh, missed the part where you got it to work.