you computer gurus out there HELP

[lawbadman]

Hello all,
I need some help from you computer gurus out there.

Here is my problem, I have not used my computer for 2 months it was stored in a closet while I was gone for the summer. Now that I am back at school I am using it again but now none of the optical drives are working. In system devices in Windows there is an exclamation sign on the name of the drives. I replaced the cable which did not help, I ran the PC with the drives dissconnected, turned off, reconnected and turned on the pc and still no fix. I reinstalled the mobo (Asus P4B-LX) chipset drivers and no results.

Right now I am thinking a BIOS upgrade might help, or a windows reinstall, but the installation CD always formats the hard drive and I have no chioce (its a SONY VAIO PCV RX 550).


I am pretty much out of ideas, can someone help me out?


Thanks
Lawrence

 

[Netlist]

What's the operating system? Are the opticals connected together to a single IDE port? First thing that comes to mind is a defect CD player. Try each of them separately.

/Hugo

 

[lawbadman]

OS is Windows XP home edition with SP2.

Both opticals (CD-RW and DVD-ROM) are both on the secondary IDE. I tried another CD-ROM and there was the same problem. I tried the same CD-ROM in the slave of the primary IDE and no change.


Thanks

Lawrence

 

[Mr Evil]

...but the installation CD always formats the hard drive...

I take it that means you are able to boot from CD alright? If so, then that demonstrates that the hardware is probably ok.

Have you tried deleting the drives in the device manager, then rebooting?

Is it only the drives that have exclamation marks next to them, or any other hardware too?

Have you tried using 'system restore' to go back to a point when it was working previously?

 

[wes-ninja250]

I don't do Windows, but if your BIOS code was fine two months ago, it's fine now. Don't go changing things willy-nilly, that's poor diagnostics.

Isolate and test. Find the defective component (probably the OS ) -- and replace it.

Wes

 

[Madmike2]

Replace the MoBo battery. Your OS has nothing to do with the hardware, there is a static driver base in the BIOS that boots all hardware before even your OS is installed at the P.O.S.T.

An exclamation is usually the windows drivers for that particular unit but since you are using a sony i would assume it is diagnostic on a defective driver that isnt actually defective.

Lastly go to RPC1.com download the utility for Drive identification get the driver 'specifically' for the drive that is claims it is and re-install the OS driver. I still dont think that is the problem though. Make sure to reboot before you get all funky about no changes in system ID.

 

[lawbadman]

Thanks for the suggestions,
In device manager I deleted the drive, and restarted the PC without the drive connected. Turned off again, connected the drive, turned on the PC and still the same problem.
Replacing the mobo battery did not help.
I upgraded the firmware of the DVD rom drive fine in DOS, but I had to use a boot disk to get into DOS. I tried Command Prompt in Windows but the upgrade software reported that it could not find the drive.
So now I know that it is a Widows problem.
Now I have to reinstall Windows without having an extra harddrive to backup my stuff

Oh well


Thanks Guys

Lawrence

 

[Netlist]

Are the drives recognized in safe mode?

As a last resort you could try 'System recovery', if enabled.

/Hugo

 

[Netlist]

Try this:

/Hugo

 

[Netlist]

Here is some more info:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;320553&Product=winxp#kb1

/Hugo

 

[mastertech]

reinstal the drive software the one that installs the drivers
you might need to uninstall first

 

[Tom2]

So now I know that it is a Widows problem.
Now I have to reinstall Windows without having an extra harddrive to backup my stuff

If all else fails, you could try using a copy of Knoppix on a dvd.
The linux based OS runs off the Dvd and uses the ram in the
computer and does not use the existing hard drive.

Since you have a dvd and cdrw, you could try to use the
cd burning software Knoppix has. The Knoppix dvd would go
into the dvd drive and use the cdrw as the cd burning drive.
The Knoppix software can read the files off the hard drive to back up your existing files on cdr's.

I did this about a month ago to recover data off some hard drives.

Tom

edit: Perhaps another solution would be to find a friend or computer
store to mount your drive in an existing computer and then copy the
files to cdrs or dvds.

 

[lawbadman]

YESSSSSSSSSSSS it works

Thanks Netlist, the registry fixer thingy worked.

Thanks to all who helped.

 

[Madmike2]

Damn i didnt even remember Q-553 ... i am such a nerd that i actually catalogue all the patchs and bug fixes they send to us at work

That suggestion slipped past my usually impeccable glitch remedies. <y head scrapes the floor to you Netlist, you uber geek you

 

[Netlist]

Damn i didnt even remember Q-553 ... i am such a nerd that i actually catalogue all the patchs and bug fixes they send to us at work

You got to have a lot of space over there.

/Hugo