Laptop won't recognize external burner

[AarontheRipper]

My trusty Pioneer 105 just died, and so I replaced it with a NEC 3550. I have an external USB enclosure that I used without any trouble before my pioneer started having trouble. I hooked it up to my Toshiba laptop and it won't recognize it. I've tried with the drive being set as master and slave and now I need to try select, but assuming that doesn't work, what is the next step. I can't find anything wrong with the USB port in device manager, and the drive does not appear on My Computer or anywhere else on the computer. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Take care.

[moviebuff2]

Oop! I think I misunderstood the question!

Response deleted!

[vcd_user]

Is the external USB enclosure the only USB device plugged in ? It depends on the amount of current the USB device draw from the USB port. If it draws more than the port can provide, you will get unrecognised error. However it should work if it is the only USB device plug to the laptop.

[Cobra]

Just moving you to the Computer forum.

Does the drive enclosure work with any other computers?

[Bjs]

Dose the device actually show up in the hardware setting's .

Under usb , right at the bottom , click the plus on usb device's to open listing .

If device is working you will see "mass storage device"

If it dose not show , then the problem is with the usb external box itself and not the drive that is in it , noting that the drive should alway's be set to "cable sellect" .

Secondly , these device's draw alot of power , esspecially on laptop's ...

If your external enclosure , did not come with a cable that connect's to the ps2 port on the laptop to supply the extra power required ... then you should invest in a powered hub such as belkin (max supply is 2 amp) .

Do not have other device's connected to the hub when you require to burn cd's / dvd's .

For laptop's , you should have it connected to main's power or run the risk of low battery kicking in when you didn't want it too ... thus ruining the disc .

Thirdly , from the spec's , I'd say you don't have usb2 ... these device's require usb2 in order to burn dvd's .

I should know , I have a dell p3 1200mhz laptop , and it say's no , it's not supported without a usb2 port ... and it only has usb1 ... and forget those usb2 addon card's for laptop's ... it just wont keep up .

To retest :

Change drive to "cable sellect"
Reconnect device to pc

If system dont popup with "found device" shortly , then usb external closure circuit at fault .
To make sure usb on pc not at fault , connect any usb device to pc ... if popup no show , you have problem .

For those with win2000 , please install service pack 3 prior to service pack 4 ... this allow's system to use all new usb type device's such as external memmory stroage device's , mp3 player's , and external usb closure's .

[SingSing]

If your laptop is not using XP or win2k, then you need driver.

[AarontheRipper]

I think that the assumption that there is something going on with the enclosure is probably correct. I have nothing connected to the other usb ports, and it is a 2.0 port. The enclosure does have an external power source. I have used this enclosure/laptop combination to burn dvd's without problems in the past. It's a 2.0GHz celeron with 512MB ram, so I doubt that the computer is the issue. I will take the external drive to a friends house and check it on his desktop. I guess worse case scenario is that I need a new enclosure, which is kind of pathetic because I've only had this one for 6-8 months.

On a side note, sometimes when I start up the laptop it doesn't recognize the internal dvd-rom that was factory installed. I usually just restart the computer and it magically reappears. Is there a chance that this may have something to do with why it's not recognizing the external burner? Thanks for the help.

[anzimike]

I presume you have done a scan for gremlins, virus, adware, spyware, etc. If the drive works on your friend's computer you may have a problem with OS, especially if you are having problems with more than 1 drive on your system. Consider doing a restore to a time before things messed up or repair/reinstall of OS. Best of luck.

[Cobra]

I guess worse case scenario is that I need a new enclosure, which is kind of pathetic because I've only had this one for 6-8 months.

Won't it be covered by warranty? In the UK, we have a manditory one year warranty on stuff like this - nothing any business can do to evade it, either. Isn't there a similar requirement where you are?

With regards to your laptop, I'm not sure what's going on (not a laptop person) but it may be a loose cable? Possible, but very unlikely as a restart helps. Perhaps there's something dodgy going on in Windows? If you can get into your BIOS (usually "DEL" or "F8" at the very first boot splashscreen) it should tell you what drives you have. If BIOS sees them on every boot, but Windows sometimes does and sometimes doesn't, then it's a Windows issue. If BIOS sometimes sees it and sometimes doesn't, there's a hardware problem.

Hope this helps.

Good luck!

Cobra

EDIT - I should probably make the standard statement here: if you don't know exactly what you are doing, don't change any settings in BIOS as it could damage your machine and/or cause loss of data.

[moviebuff2]

Hi AarontheRipper

I think your NEC 3550 is an internal DVD burner. And, you are using it with an external enclosure, like Airlink 101 - 5.25" Enclosure Box (USB 2.0).

Am I correct?

If that is correct, then replacing your internal DVD burner (NEC 3550 replacing Pioneer 105) shoud not affect your external enclosure's driver at all.

I suspect somehow the driver for your external enclosure was corrupted (damaged). Consequently, your computer no longer recognizes your external enclosure, no matter what you may put inside it (a hard drive or another DVD burner).

With the externall enclosure connected to your computer, check the USB driver for your external enclosure (My Computer, Properties, Device Manager. Universal Serial Bus controllers). Make sure the driver is said to be working properly. If necessary, re-install the driver for your external enclosure either by using its installation CD or just go the web site of its manufacturer and download the driver needed for your OS.

Good luck