DvD/CD-Rom Drive Not Being Recognised & Won't Open

Up until today my DvD/CD-Rom drive has been working perfectly, although a couple of hours ago I went to play a game and it said that it couldn't start because the CD was not in the drive. I found this odd, as the CD was definitely in the drive. I then tried opening the drive by pressing the button on it, but nothing happened, so I went to My Computer in order to try & right click the drive and click "eject". Upon going into My Computer, I realised that the drive wasn't even there anymore which was weird.

I looked for solutions on Google but couldn't really find any. I found one that suggested deleting the upper & lower filters in the registry, but when I did this & restarted the PC the problem was still there. I then opened up the PC to make sure all the cables were attached properly, and they're definitely all connected.

I can't think of anything that might have caused this apart from the fact that only a few hours ago I attached a brand new USB keyboard to my PC. Could this have anything to do with it? I'm not sure.

I've attached a screenshot that shows it's not being recognised in Device Manager or My Computer.

I'd greatly appreciate any help I can get with this, thanks in advance.


Screenshot - http://i43.tinypic.com/jpvuoo.jpg

 

Also, I noticed that the light on the front of the drive isn't on anymore. In the past it was on near enough all the time, at least when the PC would start up anyway.

 

Sorry for all the extra replies but I didn't see an edit button and I keep thinking of things to add.

Could my DvD drive have died all of a sudden out of the blue? My Power Supply is a Thermaltake Toughpower 750w, so I'm not sure if this could have contributed to it or not. In any case, I don't want to go out & purchase a new DvD drive only to get home and realise that WASN'T the problem and therefore I've just wasted my money.

 

Go into the BIOS and see if an optical drive is listed there AND is enabled.
It sounds like it isn't recognized from the moment you turn on the computer. If the light doesn't turn on momentarily, the computer doesn't know it is attached.

Before purchasing another (I've never had an optical drive die so I don't know what the symptoms are) change the ribbon cable that connects it to the motherboard. Cables do die.

 

Where in the BIOS would I look to see if the drive is listed?

My mobo is a 'gigabyte p35-ds3r'

Thanks.

 

Don`t pay attention to this link being a Gateway link, the fixes suggested to try will apply to XP machines, you do not say what os you are running, but if it is XP. Here is the link: http://support.gateway.com/s/Checklists/Q42006/ck2006110917.shtml

 

Haha for some weird reason I just thought I'd try & open the CD drive again and it worked. I then checked Device Manager & it's listed there. Strange :S

 

Yea, I know what you mean HasSanK, I have an older usb thumb drive that worked forever, then one day it just stopped working, I tried it in several other computers, with the same results, no workie. For some reason I didn`t throw it away. Over a year period, every once in a while I would try it in my machine, and various others, with the same results, no workie. Then last week I was cleaning up my computer room when I ran across the drive in a box with other computer parts, I thought right then, heck this thing doesn`t work any more, I`ll just throw it away. On my way to the trash, I walked by my computer, and on a whim I thought, heck I`ll just plug it in one more time. Well, out of the blue, bingo it was recognized, and I have tried it several more times on my machine, and others over the past week with no problems. Now why it would all of a sudden start working after a year, only the gods know. "Welcome to the wonderful world of electronics". Glad you got yours worked out.