My Mat****a DVD Ram Drive SW-9581 and Sony DVD Rom Drive DDU 1621 have both disappeared from "My Computer ".I have uninstalled and re-installed drivers several times but the status is still given as
Windows cannot load the device drivers for this hardware. The driver may be corrupt or missing {code 39]
I have tried to do a repair installation but system won't boot from CD, nor can I access BIOS. There is no response to Press any key to boot from cd or to holding Delete key at startup.
Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

Hi Archie,

Could you please give the make of your computer, Operating System you are running, amount of memory and processor?

Brief History: what were you doing immediately before this started happening? Did you have a crash, blue screen, etc? Also, ordinarilly you would tap F8 repeatedly to enter the BIOS, not just hold it down. Open your case, and make sure all power cables and data cables from your optical drives are plugged in tight on both ends.

You can try last known good configuration if you are running XP or Windows 2000; tap DELETE while booting, and a black screen menue will appear; up arrow to hilight Last Known Good Config. and tap Enter. If you only problem is corrupted system files, this may be enough to get you booted.

Hiya Archie .. first off, are you stealing my avatar idea ?

Do both the drives show up on the POST screen ? ie. are they detected ok by the bios ?

Try booting the system to a bootable floppy disk with CDROM support .. this will tell you if it is the drives that are the problem or if it is windows.
You can get a bootdisk from www.bootdisk.com

Computer is an AMD Athlon 160 GB hd 1 GB Ram 1.25 ghz. the DVD drives show in the BIOS [now that I have accessed it] Win XP Pro SP2
After using f8 key Direction keys wont move to get to last good configuration
Is there any way to get PC to boot from CD normal boot up is not a problem. I dont remember anything untoward happening before I noticed I had no DVD Drives on " My Computer" They show up in Device Manager but with the yellow marks beside drives and the status as previousle stated

By the way Technohead my avator is bigger !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have just noticed that my floppy drive is also missing with the same status showing

Have you tried reverting to a previous system state using System Restore ?

Do you have the latest service pack installed for your version of Windows ? If so, then reinstall it anyways.

Bigger doesn't always mean better archie

Okay, let's re-group here and take inventory.

*Right now, your A-floppy, and both CD/DVD drives are showing in the BIOS, right?
*Your A-Floppy and both CD/DVD drives are showing in the Device Manager but with yellow marks?
*All Three drives are not working, right?
*However, your harddrive is working, and you can clean-boot into XP with no problems.

>Okay, just for the halibut, try booting into Safe Mode. This is only exploratory, just to see what happens. Drives still not working, yellow marks still in Device Manager? If suddenly they start working and the yellow marks disappear, I would suspect some kind of virus, although I have never heard of any virus that does this.

>Pop the cover on your case, and check that your data cables are tight-plugged, and nothing wrong. If both your optical drives are on one data cable, and the cable went bad, that could be a reason. So switch your data cable and see if both drives start running. The fact that the drives are seen in the BIOS but are not functioning indicates that the power is getting to them (so your power cable is good and the drive is active), but the data is not being read. That points back to the IDE cables again.

>Next, find a different DVD or CD player or borrow one for a few minutes from a friend; plug it in, reboot, and see if it runs. If it does, we have a clue.

I can't believe that all three drives went bad at the same time. So the problem would be either the cables, the drivers corrupted that came with XP (very unusual for that to happen), or the mainboard itself went south.

Okay, go through these 1X1 and post back with the results.

Thanks foe all help. I connected an old wired keyboard and was able to do clean install. All frives now working perfectly. I did not realise till now that cordless keyboards were fully operational during boot up until I noticed light was out on sender unit .Thanks again.

That should have read not fully operational

You didn't tell us that you had w/less mouse & keyboard! Glad you got it solved!

I dont have one in use now, Any buyers out rhere!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.Thought not.

Hi ARCHIE,

You probable just had a bad wireless keyboard and mouse.

Mine is just a little over two years old, and if they were to go out on me, I would go to the store, and buy another set. I think there the best.

It was a Logitech Cordless Keyboard which I liked very much but getting into the BIOS was difficult and "Press any key to boot from CD" was impossible. In other words great until problems arose. I have bought a Logitech cabled keyboard which I will keep for overcoming problems, Do you know of a cordless keyboard that does not have this problem?

Hi ARCHIE,

QUOTE

Do you know of a cordless keyboard that does not have this problem?

No I don't, they do have their problems. My Gatway, after two months, the keyboard went dead, and they had to send a replacement, and haven't had a problem for over 2 years now, except for the batteries. The keyboard, I only had to replace once, but the mouse is another story, so I make sure I have a bunch on hand.

The only other thing was, when it didn't work again, I found out that I had a book in front of the receiver, it wasn't that big of a book, but big enough, (about 1" thick) that it blocked the connection to the mouse and keyboard. I do have a wired keyboard and mouse on my other computer, in case I ever need it.

Lorraine

Hi Lorraine,
I think I will just stick with my new cabled keyboard at least till something I spy somewhere takes my fancy.Thanks again from Bonnie Scotland and "keep the high balls low"