Advice sought: Windows can't see my CD drive

[ciphergoth]

Summary: Windows 98 still can't see my CD drive. Do I have any option besides a reinstall?

One day, without cause that I can figure out, I booted Windows on my laptop and found that the CD-ROM drive was no longer listed among the drives. Linux can still see and use the drive just fine, but even if I disable and re-enable it in the BIOS, Windows doesn't see it.

I found this out when trying to re-install network drivers under Windows, so I don't currently have Windows networking either.

If you had such a problem, where would you go for advice?

many thanks in advance...

Comments

[elfgeek.livejournal.com]

First place I would ask for advice would be on any of the geek communities (pcgeeks, etc.), from my experience they are usually very happy to help. In terms of other help, maybe on the website of your PC manufacturer or one of your local custom-made-PC shops?

Sorry, not very helpful

[babysimon]

That happened to me once. I can't remember how I solved it, or if it just went away.

You have, of course, looked in detail through the Hardware Manager tree thingy to see if suddenly you've got some sort of IRQ conflict? PnP under Windows can be a bit icky like that.

[grahamb.livejournal.com]

Which particular strain of Windows?

Try...

[kingginger.livejournal.com]

The obvious of add / remove hardware (detect new hardware)

Also - Go in under safe mode, go into the devices, make sure they are all listed, and delete the CD Rom reference in the device manager. Reboot, and see if it redetects the thing... (automatically or via an add new hardware route).

It is helpful if you have a copy of Windows 98 CD on the HD first - Just in case.

Oh - And does the thing work under DOS? (assuming that this is an IDE CD-ROM rather than a PCMCIA device).

(Windows 98 boot disks will generally pick up most CD-ROM devices on the system automatically - errm, if you have one - failing that I could probably send you an image that you could burn for a bootable CD - odd as it may seem, another way to test it if you can!).

Laterz - My 2 pence as an IT Tech.

[ex-meta.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's the new RIAA-approved DRM system from Microsoft?