Hi, I haven't posted on hear in years you'd think I'd learn my lesson :( My friends just brought a 2nd hand PC running Win98 SE, don't know what it's got in it apart from the 128meg ram. Anyway, they couldn't get their CD drive to work, I went and had a look, tried half a dozen CD's (burned and originals) and none would read, the CD drive was spinning, just couldn't access the files, actualy couldn't get it to show anyfiles at all although a right click showed the CD's were full. Fiddled around and found that someone had clicked the disconnect check mark in the CD properties, so rebooted after unchecking it and did get to access a CD, but when I tried to click on a folder on the CD got the BSOD and had to reboot, after that no go even with the diconnect box still unchecked in CD properties.....OK, here is where it all started to go badly wrong as I fiddled some more and checked the DMA check box in the CD properties.....rebooted and the drive had vanished. :( did not look good to my friends who think I know what I am doing! So now no matter what I do I can't get the CD drive back, I at least want to get it back so then they can ring the guy they got it from and ask him what the deal is with the earlier problem, they can't really do that NOW that I stuffed with it, I feel really bad about this and want to fix it somhow but as the PC is at their house it ain't easy and they don't have internet access so I had to come home and use my PC to post this message.
OK long winded I know, just wanted to get it all out in one breath.
Now the question is any idea's???
Cinta
P.S. yep I have tried reinstalling the CD drive, that opetion doesn't even come up in the add hardware thingy in control panel, and it isn't auto detected and....now I just want to cry :(

The drive is Slave to hard drive on first IDE port or Master on second IDE port assuming one hard drive only:check the wiring,a cdrom drive does not need any special detection.Rebooting the computer with the drive installed is all you need.If this routine check does not work,use a replacement drive.This is one of the easiest hardware to check and/or replace:3 connectors(sound,power,data cable) and setting the jumper right.Cdrom drives fail but often seem to be still working electrically.It can be confusing if you never experienced this before.It is not a part that lasts long if it is in daily use for games etc.Getting one year out of it is about all you get then you buy a new one(used cdrom units are plenty around and only cost a few dollars and usually carry a one week warranty by the seller to make sure you set it up and it works).Recycled from office computers,these were never really used at all and are good deals.Look up at the date on the label:units with recent dates(2-3 years back)will play cdr or cdrw without problems.Older drives will always play the cd that was mass produced like those with music and games but may post a message that there is no cd in drive with a cdr.Good luck.

It could be that the lens in the drive is dusty/dirty. There are cleaning cd's which can be purchased to help with this. Also check the Master and Slave jumpers on the drive. Is it set up correctly?

What is the make and model of the cdrom drive? (Just to ascertain if it's a proprietary drive or not.) OR, you could try booting with a 98SE bootdisk to see if you get access to the drive in dos, but this is dependant on the drive being properly jumpered/connected as I stated above.

Petit Jean types faster than me. ;>)

Thanks for the quick replys,
Dan- the drive is a Fujitsu (don't know the model, must check that tomorrow as I'm honor bound to go and try and fix it somehow)
And I have already tried a CD cleaner, about the only really good Idea I came up with while I was there I think but to no avail I'm afraid.
I was sitting here thinking about the jumper settings myself, could well be the initial problem but now that the CD does not appear at all in My Computer window I really have to try and get it back again to be able to have a go at that.
Jean - thanks for the info about the CD drive not needing any detection, had me stumped why I couldn't detect it, just wish I could at least get it back as a drive letter :( even if it still doesn't work the missing drive is what I am responsible for I belive the other problem was like it before I visited! (just kidding I really want to help my fiends but scared I'll do more damage)
I have been reading up on the subject of missing drives and have read to check if the drive is in the CMOS (I assume it would be CMOS not BIOS, doesn't look too new a computer but I may be wrong) Hard to tell really, is an old desk top, was a little wary when I saw it as my friends thought they got a 'bargain'? and they don't have a great deal of computer knowledge or money.
To check the CMOS is it just F8 at boot up? I HAVE done this before but have forgotten it all and all to do with 98 as I run XP now so I am having to really stretch my memory with it all.
The CD drive does still function, lights are on etc spins etc but just is not appearing as a drive, this can't be the jumpers as it was appearing earlier tonight (that's what it is here in Australia) :)
I don't suppose just taking out the CD drive and putting it back in again would do it? - what I mean is would Windows somehow know I had just put in a piece of hardware and detect it? I'm probably getting annoying now with stupid wuestions so I'll shut up now and cross my fingers that one of you who is much wiser will have some advice.
Cinta -in the land of OZ where it is 2:30am and I can not sleep after losing my friends CD drive :(

The Disconnect option is `normally' on for CD drives.
The DMA option is also normally on, but a few very old drives did not support DMA.
Try removing the drive in the Device Manager and rebooting.
CD drives are very inexpensive these days. Maybe you could even convince them that a DVD drive would be better. :-)

CMOS & BIOS, while often used interchangeably, are a bit different.

The BIOS controls your computer before the Operating System (Windows, Linux, whatever) loads. Access to the BIOS settings is accomplished by means of the CMOS setup - you invoke the CMOS by hiting a key or key sequence before the OS starts to load. Usually the 'del' key, it does vary. Often there will be onscreen instructions at the start.

The F8 key is a Windows feature that opens the Windows startup menu.

On newer machines, plug n play hardware such as a CD drive will be detected at startup, and likely has an entry in the CMOS/BIOS - on older machines there would not necessarily be an entry.

You probably do have a bad CD drive - replacing it with a good one should be picked up by Windows, if installed and jumpered correctly. They can go bad and still spin, eject etc.

Did you try removing the entry for the drive in Device Manager and see if Windows would redetect after a restart? Or is there currently no entry at all for the drive?

Confusion reigns

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Shutdown the computer and choose to restart in msdos mode. Then at the c:\windows> prompt type:

scanreg/restore

and enter. Choose a registry to restore with a date that precedes your making the changes. When it's done, reboot. Assuming you haven't deleted any relevant files, the cdrom should now show in 'my computer'. Then you can 'start over' with the repairs.

To see if the problem is with windows or the cdrom, boot from a bootdisk and choose cdrom support. Put a data (not audio) disk in the cdrom and type:

dir e:

and enter, where e: is the cdrom drive letter. It's probably a different letter than when booting from the HD. If you pay attention, the last few lines that load before the final a:\> prompt will tell you the letter.

Anyway, after typing the dir command it should show the directory listing on the monitor. If you get an error message, hit Retry several times to allow the cdrom to spin up.

If you eventually get a directory listing the problem is probably in windows. If not the problem is probably with the cdrom.

And, as mentioned above, make sure the cdrom cable connections are tight.

Hi again and thanks everyone for your help, I'm going to see if my friends are home tomorrow and go and try the scanreg/restore thing, with luck that will work, then I can get onto the task of opening the box to see if the jumpers are set incorrectly. To everyone who asked or mentioned the CD in the device manager, well it has gone from there too, just vanished! So it's hard to try a lot of the great suggestions as some of them require the Drive showing up in the device manager. Daveincaps, I do believe I remember you from years ago when I completly messed with my brothers computer :) ended up getting it all to go after he was ready to chuck it to the tip.
Cinta

I hope it works. I've found scanreg/restore often works when the cdrom disappears from 'my computer', indicating it may be a glitch in the registry somewhere.