My PC stopped reading my CD/DVD drives after a power outage

[koolpooldude]

I was burning a DVD-RW at the time and the power went out for about half a second, long enough for my computer to reboot. When it did, it rebooted without my CD and DVD drives. In My Computer, only my Floppy shows. The other 2 icons disappeared. My DVD drive opens when I push the button, but not my CD drive. And even if a disc is inserted, there's no reaction on the screen.

I should also mention that I bought a USB 2.0 card a few weeks ago, and when turning my computer on upon the installation of it, this same problem occured. I removed the card, and the drives came back. But now I can't get them to come back. I even tried putting the USB 2.0 card back, and then removing it, and still nothing.

I've checked the cables and am sure it's not a badly connected cable. Any help would be appreciated.

I have an HP Celeron 2.00GHz running Windows XP Pro. Ask me if you need to know more info.

[lumis]

do they show up in the bios?

[koolpooldude]

How do I check that? Is that the Device Manager?

[lumis]

when your computer first boots up there should be a key you press (F1, DEL, etc) to enter the bios.. or it may have a bootup screen that displays the detected drives, memory, etc.. you need to find out if the computer is seeing them, because if the computer is seeing them, then your problem is with windows. if your computer isnt seeing them, then its probably a hardware issue

[steve2713]

You could always try system restore. Start-Accessories-System Tools-System Restore. No harm in trying it - if it works, great, if not just roll back to your current setup.

I had a bad flash attempt about a month ago, it instantly shut down my computer, and upon rebooting it did not recognize any of my optical drives. A Win XP system restore quickly got me going again - it may have been corrupted drivers.

[koolpooldude]

They don't appear in the bios. What it said:
Primary Master: SAMSUNG SV4002H-PM
Primary Slave: None
Secondary Master: None
Secondary Slave: None

And above all this it said LEGACY DISKETTE A.

[koolpooldude]

I also tried System Restore. I restored it to the day before, but nothing has changed. They still don't appear in the bios.

[ulapines]

Try to restore the bios

[koolpooldude]

How do I do that? And does it erase anything on the hard drive?

[redwudz]

Go to your motherboard manufacturer site. You should find the BIOS files there. There should also be instructions to upgrade the BIOS. This will have NO effect on your files on your harddrive.

Before you do that, try this. Turn off your computer and pull the power plug. Then open up the computer and remove the BIOS battery. (About the size of a quarter.) Leave it out for a few minutes, then reinstall. Plug the computer back in and boot. This will reset your BIOS to default. There may also be a shorting pin to do this, but often the battery removal is easier. This will also not effect your files. Check your BIOS settings and see if the drives show up.

You should probably record your main BIOS settings before you do this, so you can set them all back to the way they were.

If this has no effect, then try the BIOS upgrade. If your computer has been around a while, it wouldn't hurt to upgrade the BIOS anyway. The upgrade is generally done through a floppy disk.

[nic2k4]

Try unplugging all the cables of the CD drive (do that with the power off), does the DVD drive work now? If so, the CD is fried.

You can have the BIOS re-detect the drives. Look around the different menus for something about Autodetect Drive. If you can't find anything, with recent BIOS', all you do is bring the cursor to the spot where it says NONE, for the drive you want to detect, and push ENTER.

[koolpooldude]

I removed the BIOS battery for a few minutes, and plugged the pc back. The good thing is that both drives now work. They appeared in the BIOS and the My Computer folder. But the problem is that when the PC reboots, the first screen to come up says ERROR: CPU FAN FAILED. HAVE YOUR SYSTEM SERVICED IMMEDIATELY! And the PC turns back off after 5 seconds, unless you press the F2 button twice. I haven't touched anything else, just removed the battery for 5 minutes and put it back. I checked and both fans are working on the back of my computer.

[on30trainman]

Probably when you removed and reinserted the battery you reset the BIOS CMOS to some failsafe default state. I had a similar instance when I updated the BIOS on a new motherboard and was told to reset the CMOS (by moving a jumper from one set of pins to another and then back). When the PC was first turned on afterwards I got an almost immediate error message that my CPU was overheating, a loud alarm buzz and the system shut down. I felt the CPU heat sink and it was cool to the touch. Went into the BIOS and checked the temp and it was well below the alarm set point. Turned off the alarm in the BIOS (I monitor temp constantly with MBM5) and everything has worked fine.
Check your BIOS settings for alarm settings and temp readings. May be the reason. Something in your BIOS may not be monitoring the fan speed correctly. Do your case fans have three wires to a motherboard header?

[koolpooldude]

Since both fans are working, I'll just disable the Fan Checking in the BIOS, like this page says. But I can't get farther than #5 because on the Hardware Monitor screen, I can't select anything. It shows me the temperature and that other number, but on the right panel it says ALL ITEMS ON THIS MENU CANNOT BE MODIFIED IN USER MODE. IF ANY ITEMS REQUIRE CHANGES, PLEASE CONSULT YOUR SYSTEM SUPERVISOR. And I only have 1 account on my computer, I thought I was the administrator.

[redwudz]

That may be normal or it may be your BIOS is messed up. BIOS is stored on EEPROM that is not erased by power failure or pulling the battery. Reseting it just puts it back to default.

Check your motherboard site to see if your BIOS is up to date. The BIOS version flashes briefly when the system first starts to boot. If you know what your motherboard is now, check their site for some more tips and info. The system administrator warning is generic. You generally are administrator so don't worry about that.

Many times the 'Monitor Screen' is just that. It shows the state of the system but you can't change it. There should be somewhere there in the BIOS settings to disable the fan check, look around some. If all else fails, upgrade the BIOS.

[Tidy]

holy cow, all this advice telling you to tear your system apart. Think of it this way, your system was working fine then you had a power outage and it quit. This is NOT going to be your BIOS. Your BIOS is stored on an EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory). What this means is that once it is programmed it is programmed. You can try resetting your CMOS but I really doubt it will help. Honestly it sounds to me like a power surge from the power coming back on may have fried one or both of your drives. It is possible for the data interfaces on drives to go out but leave them operational enough to allow the drive doors to open and close. Checkign cables and jumpers is pointless. The power outage did not change your jumpers or flash your BIOS. What I would do is take both drives that are not working out. Reconnect them one at a time (each alone) to see if you can get either of them to recognize. If neither will recognize run to your local electronics store and buy a new drive and try it. If that drive works then bam you know your problem. If that drive does not work then there is some other hardware issue most likely with your motherboard. Just remember, yoru systemw as working fien then the power went out and it quit. That means that most likely when the power came back on it fried something. Do you use a surge protector? I lost a power supply a few days ago to lightning even when I was hooked up to s surge suppressor. Now I have all my equipment running through a 1400VA UPS. That will stop the lightning for sure.

[hudsonf]

Is one of the fans you are talking about attached to your cpu? If not check to make sure the fan on the cpu is working.