firstly some background......installed new mobo (abit kr7a-raid), memory 256ddr,amd athlon 1800xp, seagate 60gig barracuda (all new) !!.....have updated all drivers even the mobo chipset. had windows 98 installed previously,updated to winxp with new partition and format of new hard drive, installeed win98 then xp, but since i have installed and tried to run the new setup, when i boot, my cd-dvd, and cd-rw are missing !.......i have narrowed it down to this happening............ 1: if i reset the cmos, with no usb peripherals connected they show up fine and run ok, i can then connect the usb devices without problem and reboot time after time again with no probs!!........until...... 2:the machine is left off for some time ie an hour or so, then when i bootup, they are missing again !! if i then reset the cmos and leave usb devices connected, and boot up ! sometimes i just get the hdd led lit and no beep or bootup !!. so i then have to reset the cmos again and disconnect usb devices, reboot reset my bios, and lo and behold my cd drives show up !!, then i have to reconnect the usb devices again....... i have tried all sorts of suggestions given to me on here ie: going to registry and deleting the high/low number file thingys (sorry cant remember what there called) checking this that and whatever but to no avail as yet !! please could somebody help out if poss as i'm getting near to suicide here trying to sort this out !! i have updared all drivers and windows to date........ a big thankyou in advance to anybody that can give any help/guidance.......thx !!

try updating the bios on ur board...thats the only thing i can think of that you havent tried! l@er .:bi0phreak:.

I read a post at another forum with the same kind of problem that eventually was traced to insufficient power supply caused by a surge protector that was going bad.

Known issue with XP and disappearing CD-ROM/CD-RW/DVDs, go to support.microsoft.com and do the registry hack with document Q314060. Done many times works like a charm. Don't get to involved with hardware, remember that XP is still new