I have  a Sony computer. The dvd & cd drives were working fine now they can not be found. They don't SHOW up in the explorer.   They have power to them both.  Any suggestions?toc423.....It is highly unlikely that 2 cd drives failed at the same time....so I would be looking for another cause. Possibly the problem is the cable which connects them to the motherboard.....is it a wide flat ribbon type?
Were you making any changes to your pc or did you have the cover off ?
Have you downloaded any driver updates recently?
let us know

dl65  I have not opened the cover. I don't think any new drivers have been loaded. In my device manager there is a yellow exclamation pointtoc423......what happens if you click on the exclamation point...?
You mean the exclamation point is on the cd drives .
What operating system are you using?


dl65  Windows successfully loaded the device driver for this hardware but cannot find the hardware device. (Code 41)
Windows XP
I have unistalled / re-installedSounds LIKE your flat cable on your secondary IDE channel has come loose or fried, or that possibly your ATAPI/IDE secondary channel on the MB has fried.

First make sure the BIOS settings are set to run both IDE adaptor channels on the MB. The setting could have become CORRUPT. Reboot and see if they recognise.

Then, try just using a different cable. If the drives work right now, discard (or scavenge for hookup wire like I do with damaged ribbon cables) the dead cable.

If they still don't recognise, disconnect each drive (one at a time) and see if the other drive recognises. If this allows one drive to recognise but not the other, you have a dead drive, dump the bad CDROM or DVD.

If neither drive recognises on the second channel and you have only one HD, set both drives to Slave (check your HD, and set it to Master with slave or Cable Select as appropriate, if it is Cable Select set the CDROMs to that also) and try them one at a time as Slave devices. If both work, you can get a PCI IDE card to run them on. Promise Technologies sells a series of PCI IDE cards ranging from basic channel for running CDROMs to enhanced IDE cards that add 4 or 8 EIDE UDMA133 drives and/or SATA drives to existing systems. If the secondary MB IDE channel is toast, disable it in BIOS to free up the IRQ.

If the CDROMs don't recognise in one setting (Slave or Cable Select), try the other.I am some what of a neophyte with the computer lingo.  I am not sure what you mean by" First make sure the BIOS settings are set to run both IDE adaptor channels on the MB"
I understand the rest Quote

(or scavenge for hookup wire like I do with damaged ribbon cables)

merlin_2   you are my hero!

I am some what of a neophyte with the computer lingo.

Don't worry, Johnwill, the real heroes always go unnoticed.