Topic: dvd drives not showing in device manager

[Lona]

What's an MBR?

[Rik]

Just a stab in the dark, but this wouldn't be a corrupt MBR would it?

Only if it isn't actually booting from the internal drive, but that doesn't sound to be the case.

[Rik]

What's an MBR?

Master boot record, the section of the HD that the BIOS uses to find the actual boot sector.

[Simon]

I think it's Master Boot Record, Lona, and there's a command to 'fixmbr', but don't take my word for it, wait for Sandra or Sam to come along.  You could Google it in the meantime, but I'm only guessing, and it might be nothing to do with that.  I'll try to be of more help later, when I'm back on my PC.

[Simon]

Sorry, didn't see Rik's reply before posting that.  Seems not to be the case.

[Sandra]

I saw Lonas post earlier on another forum that we are both members of and had suggested what Rik had done re the error 39 thing, so its got me puzzled at the moment.

If reseeting BIOS defaults doesnt fix it then it looks as if the secondary IDE controller isnt enabled in bios.

[Lona]

What's the difference from the primary ide controller and the secondary ide controller?

[Sandra]

There are 2 IDE channels on earlier motherboards so they designate one as the primary and one as the secondary.
Both work in exactly the same way and it doesnt really matter which one/s is/are used but generally if only one channel is being used, as in your case, then we usually use the primary.
If there is an IDE boot drive then that is usually attached to the primary IDE channel too.

To keep people up to speed we tried a few things while we were chatting on messenger last night.
The CMOS battery was removed and the clear cmos jumper used so that we are definately at bios defaults.
She still has the same problem.

I have been trying to find some screenshots of the bios for that particulat mobo, its an MS 7091.
Its not listed on the MSI site as its a made for medion pcs one.

I think the problem is a bios setting and I think its in the Integrated Peripherals part for the IDE and SATA controllers/drives.
Lonas pc has one 250 gig SATA drive as its boot drive and 2 x IDE DVD drives.
I seem to recall having a similar problem before and I am certain I had to set the sata drive to run as an IDE one and not as I originally thought for it to be set as mixed SATA and PATA.
It was too late to try the various arrangements around that thought by the time wed found the clear cmos jumper and tried a few other things so thats the next thing to try.

If anyone can come up with the correct settings for the SATA and IDE combination that would fix it I am sure.

[Lona]

In the integrated peripherals part for the ide and sata, Sata is set as ide and the only way the pc will boot up is if I set  it to enhanced mode. All others bring up a message to insert the op system disk.

[Lona]

Problem solved.  Ide cable removed from Mobo and re-inserted brought my drives back.

[Rik]

Don't you just hate it when something so simple fixed things.  Well done, Lona. 

[Simon]

Umm... Reply #1...

Does the drive which has 'disappeared' actually still work, Lona?  I was just wondering if a power lead or IDE connector may have come adrift.

 

[Lona]

Umm... Reply #1...

 

I had checked all the connections, Simon. I had even pulled out the connections from the drives and rebooted, thinking that when I re-connected them PC would find new hardware.  What I didn't do was disconnect from the motherboard.  None of the connections were loose so I can't give you any brownie points, sorry. 

[Simon]

It may not have been loose, but there was obviously an issue with the connection.  Could have just been dust in the contacts, and removing and reinserting it gave it a bit of a clean. 

[Lona]

It may not have been loose, but there was obviously an issue with the connection.  Could have just been dust in the contacts, and removing and reinserting it gave it a bit of a clean. 

Could have been all that cigarette ash, Simon.