# Computer help, please! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 27, 2004, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-help-please/231483 "2004-02-27T16:17:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![undercover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@undercover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/undercover)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-help-please/231483/1 "2004-02-27T16:17:38Z")
Literally in the space of twenty minutes, my computer (Windows XP, if it matters) has ‘lost’ the DVD and CD drive. Meaning, when I click on my computer and look under devices with removable storage I only see the floppy disk drive. I can’t play DVDs or normal game CDs now, I’ve tried. Any idea on what happened? God, I _hate_ being computer illiterate. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-help-please/231483/2 "2004-02-27T16:27:44Z")
Shut your computer down and open it up. Don’t worry, it only _looks_ scary in there–take your time when working inside, and you’ll be fine. Make sure both connectors (one is a wide, flat, grey cable; the other is a white four-wire connector) on each drive are firmly seated in place. To be sure, gently pull off each one and push it back on. Follow the wide, flat, grey cable bacl to the motherboard, and do the same for the connector(s) on the other end. Once you’re sure these connections are tight, restart your computer. If the drives now show up, you’re good to go. If not, reboot in Safe Mode (Press F8 after POST and select Safe Mode from the numbered menu). Open up Device Manager, and locate the entries for both the DVD and CD-ROM drives, and delete all of them. Restart your computer and allow XP to redetect the drives and reinstall the necessary drivers. This should fix the problem, assuming the drives are both in good working order. ---
**Author:** ![Jurph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/50afbb/32.png) [@Jurph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurph)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-help-please/231483/3 "2004-02-27T16:30:39Z")
I’m going to work on the assumption that you’re speaking of two separate drives, and that it has not lost your hard drive yet (yeah, that’s supposed to sound a little ominous). Sounds to me like they’re two devices on the same IDE controller, and that the IDE controller either 1. went bad, as hardware occasionally does, 2. received unintentionally flawed instructions from legitimate software which deactivated it, or 3. received malicious instructions from unknown software. If you’re an admin, go to Settings \> Control Panel \> Admin Tools \> Storage and poke around; see if your computer knows the devices are there. Check out your Device Manager (Settings \> Control Panel \> Admin Tools \> System Tools \> Dev. Manager) and see if any of the items show up with exclamation points. I hope you’ve tried rebooting; during a reboot, look at your BIOS menu and see if your BIOS can auto-detect your drives. Try these steps and let us know what you find; if you’re uncomfortable with doing any of these, don’t do them, and report back that you skipped “X” for whatever reason. ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-help-please/231483/4 "2004-02-27T16:31:59Z")
I’m no PC guru, but I’ve learned by so many PC tragedies… When you say “removable storage”, I assume you mean to say that your DVD/CD Rom drive is an external drive, right? If so, double-check the connections. Unplug and re-plug the drive’s cable just to be sure it is good. Heck, double-check the connections at both ends of the cable, just to be sure! When plugging into a port in back of the CPU, your PC should pop-up with a message acknowledging the connection has been made. (i.e.: “New hardware has been found”) The laptops I have used simply acknowledge with a little musical tone. If your drive is internal, this sounds like it is a more serious problem. For example, a virus caused my PC to stop acknoweldging the modem! (That was a period of major headaches for me!) - Jinx ---
**Author:** ![Jurph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/50afbb/32.png) [@Jurph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurph)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-help-please/231483/5 "2004-02-27T16:32:20Z")
:smack: Definitely do **Q.E.D.**'s hardware cabling check first. ---
**Author:** ![Nightsong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nightsong/32/3083_2.png) [@Nightsong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightsong)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-help-please/231483/6 "2004-02-27T16:56:33Z")
I’ve notced this occasionally happening on computers I’ve used (Windows based) as well: however, in the cases I’ve experienced it’s been completely software realted. (Basically, something screwed up and hid those devices from Windows so Windows no longer realized there were there.) Looking at the problem from a software POV, and trying to not cover what’s already been covered: Try uninstalling and reinstalling the ASPI layer. And lastly (this is what I normally end up doing), there’s a setting for the ASPI stuff in the registry, and a value that should be ‘0’ occasionally gets set to ‘1’ by a program. Resetting that and rebooting does the trick. Not for those who are uncomfortable mucking about with the registry however. I wish I could remember where the heck I first saw this trick, so I could post the link which has a more detailed explanation of what to do. * * * \<\< Bad command! Go sit in the corner! \>\> ---
**Author:** ![dylan\_73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecccb3/32.png) [@dylan\_73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dylan_73)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-help-please/231483/7 "2004-02-27T17:07:55Z")
Before you do all that, I fixed the same problem on another computer last month…it was a corrupt registry entry caused by a virus, I think. Can’t remember exactly I’m afraid. I’ll google for it. There was a very simple fix. ---
**Author:** ![dylan\_73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecccb3/32.png) [@dylan\_73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dylan_73)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-help-please/231483/8 "2004-02-27T17:13:11Z")
Wasn’t a virus after all; I’d just thought it might be at the time. Found it at [http://www.experts-exchange.com/Hardware/Desktops/Q\_20844333.html](http://www.experts-exchange.com/Hardware/Desktops/Q_20844333.html) Solution is: > [@](#): > > Comment from kronostm > Date: 01/08/2004 03:58AM PST > Comment > > sfcgleon … that’s a common issue in WinXP > do the following: > > [Start] [Run] [Regedit] > Registry Key: HKEY\_LOCAL\_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class > Key Name: {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} > Value Data: [Delete All Value Data from UpperFilters and LowerFilters] > Note: Do not delete the Key or the Multi-String Values. Delete only the data values. > Exit Registry and Reboot If this isn’t it, then you’ll probably need to try the previous stuff. BTW, I found this googling for “cdrom virus “my computer” disappeared windows 2000” (it was a Win2K machine and, as I said, I’d thought it was a virus) ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-help-please/231483/9 "2004-02-27T20:04:20Z")
So what does all that stuff **dylan** just posted mean? I don’t really understand how hardware with self-installing drivers works; does Windows just “lose” the firmware? ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-help-please/231483/10 "2004-02-27T20:28:30Z")
You’ve probably tried stuff others have said, but in case you haven’t… Before cracking the case, reboot the computer. During the bootup it should go through the standard memory test and all that - the stuff you see every time you boot the PC. (It’s possible that there’s a splash screen - then you’ll need to hit the escape key to see the stuff above) It will all the IDE devices (different drives) attached to your system. They’re usually model numbers, but it won’t be too hard to figure out what’s what. Now, are you CD and DVD listed? If they are, then you’ve got a windows problem, and you should take a look at the solutions in this thread about viruses and your registry. If they’re not, then it’s a hardware problem. Unless you’ve been poking around in your BIOS (and you would know if you were), it’s a hardware problem. In that case, go with some of the suggestions in this thread that involve opening your case and reseating cables. -Joe, wunderkind ---
**Author:** ![dylan\_73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecccb3/32.png) [@dylan\_73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dylan_73)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-help-please/231483/11 "2004-02-27T20:29:45Z")
There’s no difference between self-installing hardware and hardware you have to get drivers from a disk for. The only difference is that for common stuff, windows knows what it is and has the drivers included as part of the Operating System. In this case the hardware is “half there”. Windows won’t detect it as new hardware, but it doesn’t set things up as it should when that hardware is installed. That particular key in the registry has the settings for the drives. In this case the settings are messed up so you remove the values so that windows will detect them again at startup. Then everything should just work (with any luck!)