Comp Help Needed Please!

[Pyser]

so, i dont think i did anything, but my 2 'cd' drives have disappeared. completely gone. dont show up anywhere on my comp. by that i mean my 'd' drive and 'e' drive are just not recognized anywhere on the comp.

i have a dell dimension 8250, and windows xp. i looked around the dell message board, and a lot of people seem to have this problem, but in my time reading, i didnt see anyone fix it.

has anyone heard of this? its quite annoying. i have all my window xp discs - to say, reinstall the drivers, but that's useless, because it cant be read by a drive that my computer says doesnt exist.

anyone have any ideas? thanks.

[Cap Ologist]

I'm assuming that you've restarted Windows and this problem still occurs?

Maybe try downloading the drivers from the Web to your hard-drive and reinstalling them from there?

You can also try posting at the computerhope.com (http://www.computerhope.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi) forum. I've gotten help from there before.

Did you install anything or tinker with anything before this happened?

I've learned (the hard way) that whenever you have a computer problem, be as specific as possible about it when you post it. It will help people out who will try to help you figure it out quicker.

Wish I knew more about hardware, but I really don't.

[DaddyTorgo]

The cables might just have gotten jostled loose. Have you opened it up to install anything new lately/moved it or anything like that? Cuz that could have made the cables fall out (unlikely but possible).

[Ryno]

I've seen this happen on Windows 2000 when you uninstall Roxio software. I would check for a hardware issue first (power, cables, bios). If you don't find anything, I'd do a search for "upper and lower filters" on Google. There are some registry keys that you have to delete, but I don't have them handy, and I have to go. I'll be back on later if needed.

[Pyser]

yeah, i keep reading about these upper and lower filters. guess ill give it a try.

ive tried the old reboot, that of course didnt work. and i havent opened up the computer or moved it, so itd be tough for the cables to come loose. all the same i opened her up, and everything seemed to be plugged in....plus, it seems it would be tough for both drives to come unplugged at the exact same time.

ill try the filters thing, but if anyone has anymore insight, please please share it.

[Pyser]

bump

[Ryno]

Sorry I didn't get back to you, but I had work and then class immediately following.

If you're still looking for them, the upper and lower filters are at:

Local_Machine/System/CurrentControlSet/Control/Class/
4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318/

Obviously, it would be a good idea to do an export of that key before you start deleting anything. Delete the entries for LowerFilters and UpperFilters, then reboot.

If that doesn't work, and it's not a hardware failure, I'm pretty much out of ideas.