Author Topic: Disappearing act? (Read 777 times)

Benjie · « **on:** August 24, 2005, 11:26 »

Hello,

I've got a little problem with my CD drives. When I switch on my PC, more often than not they don't even register, but every now and then there they are...
When they do decide to appear, they seem to work fine, but I can't see why they are disappeating?

I hope someone can help, as this is really frustrating, at the moment it's pot luck as to when I can install/play CD's or anything,

B

Sandra · « **Reply #1 on:** August 24, 2005, 11:41 »

Hi Benjie and

It sounds like its possibly a bios fault.
Check that its set to auto detect all drives in the bios rather than manually stating what the drives are.

If its already set to auto detect then try loading bios defaults or using the clear CMOS jumper to rest the bios to its original state.

Hope this helps

Benjie · « **Reply #2 on:** August 25, 2005, 11:53 »

Thanks for advice,

I changed all the drives over to auto and still nothing though, I'm a bit of a novice with all this and I'm not sure how to go about the rest of it though.....

Sandra · « **Reply #3 on:** August 25, 2005, 12:37 »

Are you happy enough to open the case and mess around inside your pc ?

There is a jumper, ( a small piece of plastic with a connector inside it ), that is usually next to the small round battery on the motherboard.
It should be marked CMOS, hopefully.
If you know the make and model of your motherboard you could have a look on the manufacturers site to see exactly where it is as some manufacturers place it away from the battery.
Make sure that the pc is unplugged from the mains socket or that the socket is switched off before touching or moving anything inside the pc.
There are two positions that it can be placed in, it will be in the normal run position now but if you pull it off and connect the central and the other end pins together with the jumper for a few seconds that will clear the memory of the CMOS chip and when you replace the jumper in its original position it will have set the CMOS back to its factory settings.

While you are inside the case you can check that the IDE cables, ( the wide flat grey ribbon ones ), are firmly pushed home into the back of your cd drives and also into the motherboard itself.

Hope this helps