I'm new to the board. I found it after googling for a solution to the problem I'm having.


I built my own PC.

Intel D865 Perl motherboard
Intel P4 2.87 gHz cpu
IDE devices
- 2 Western Digital 250 GB HDs
- Plextor DVD+-RW/CDRW drive (master)
- Sony CD drive (slave)
media card usb drive

Windows XP Professional

Something infected the boot table. i could access the HD and copy data off it (pictures). Then i formatted and reinstalled windows.

I got a clean start before i connected the DVD drive. The CD was set to master.

I shut down and connected the DVD as master and set the CD to slave.

The BIOS recognizes every device.

However, windows hangs when trying to start.

I've set the CD to master and DVD to slave. I've taken the CD out and set the DVD to master. I've tried multiple different configurations.

If the DVD device is connected windows will not start.

I thought there might have been a problem with the Plextor DVD drive so I bought a new HP DVDRW/CDRW drive. same problem.

Since the bios recognizes the devices it makes me THINK there's something wrong with windows plug-n-play.

Although it did start SUCCESSFULLY w the CD and USB drives when the DVD was not connected.

Thanks for any assistance you can offer.I would suggest you connect the CD/DVD drives in the configuration you want, then do a fresh FORMAT and reinstall of Windows. This may prove to be the quickest and simplest way of overcoming the drives not being recognised.Disconnect all drives except the HDD that has XP on it...introduce one drive at a time with all power off and DOUBLE check the device in My Computer and Control Panel/Device Manager.

Did you remember to install all drivers especially the MBoard drivers on this build ? ?

patio.   8-)

p.s. This could also be something as simple as a bad IDE cable. Buy a new one for the optical drives.