DVD-ROM not found in bios/hardware mgr

Hi,
Situation: I received a Acer Aspire 5520 64bit Vista. HDD hac been scrambled by teenaged linux experiment:cry. I tried to reinstall Vista 64 from a good cd, but it stalled saying it couldnt find a "64" file destination? Decided to install XP 32bit. All goes ok,even the drivers were available.
Problems: 1)the dvd rom is not recognized. Not listed in hardware mgr or the Bios drive list. I've been thru all these fixes, everything short of flashing bios:confused
-New Hardware install; pull/replace dvd from laptop; PCFix & AutoFix.exe; reg edit showed no upper or lower filters but showed dvd rom as default(shouldnt the dvd unit id be here?); Optiarc site said no driver needed, is P&Play.
Whats next? I started the driver install proceedure with the newest chipset.
Some sites say flash Bios. But which one to use, 32 ADM or 64 ADM?
2) The touchpad tap and button functions wont work after boot. After all start up finished,if I fiddle with the WIN button/open something/close it using tab&enter, a few times the functions return to normal. Except it is not sensitive, gotta tap hard. Happened before and after updating the Synaptics driver (ALPS driver wouldn't load so I assumed it was the other ot the 2 choices I found on ACER site).
THanks for any input
mannshands
Acer 5520/AMD Turion64/2GHz/2.75RAM/XPpro-sp3

 

The Acer 5520 appears to like Vista, as it comes installed with it.
To check on the installation version, "Everest " can be downloaded, and will show your pressent system, to see which driver you might need.
Otherwise download that manual from this link.
You should now be able to instal Vista.Sometimes XP has not the correct driver availability, and it does say on Acer site , to be careful-
http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/notebook/as_5520.html

Note the site instruction to instal some drivers AFTER installing Vista.
If you just want to instal XP, then come back, and others may be able to help with the drivers, if I am not on-line.

 

Just a passing thought, your linux experiment did not include a flash of the dvd rom(firmware)? A firmware update can go wrong.....
Try the dvd in another laprtop , if you have one around, usually there is only a screw to hold them in, and many have the same plug fitting on the rear to plug into the laptop.

 

I'm guessing that the hd was formatted ext3 for linux so of course the Vista DVD sees no hard drive. You need to format to NTFS so Vista sees a hard drive to install to. If XP partially installed, check to see if the drive is formatted NTFS. If so, perhaps the Vista 64 DVD will now work.

 

It completed the Quick format at XP install. I assume thats NTFS. Cant get a dvd to boot now. Tried WIN7ULT 64, Vista 32. It keeps booting to hdd/XP despite bios settings to try dvd 1st(but a cd has worked, thats how I got XP in there). So what does that mean, cd but no dvd? Cant fit Vista or 7 on a cd!
I am puzzled. On the F12 boot choice menu only NVIDA boot mgr and hdd are shown, both boot to XP on hdd.
THX

 

First it looks like you can get the drivers to all.From this page
http://support.acer.com/
To this page
http://support.acer.com/drivers_download.aspx

This driver page seems to have all the drivers for XP, VISTA AND W7

Have you tried looking in the bios-(f2, I believe , on startup), and negotisting through the tabs to see if the dvd drive id shewn as a boot device- I have not had time to look at the manual, but in working on laptops, I have found that it is possible to inadvertably disable the start up , dvd, and usb- see if there is an entry there, and if it can be disabled/enabled, let alone moved up to boot first.If it does not show in the bios, or, shows as a cd drive, then again, seee if it has been disabled.
I have often said to people look in the bios option to start when it will not work from f12, as this is a possibility.

 

As I said, its not listed in BIOS with detected hardware. DVD-cd is on the boot list but is not active, nor can it be activated. The kid didn't flash the Bios.The partitions were wiped, during the xp install format stage I wiped all partitions b4 reformatting.
No dvd drivers on Acer 5520 page.
I have to try the optic drive in another laptop,I suspect its shot.
Solved mouse prob by accident simply by booting into safe mode, for some reason the mouse went to normal action as soon as safe mode booted. On restart the mouse was fixed! No delay.
Have XP working properly, despite all the forum posts on various sites saying this unit is Vista only! I love killing Vista for all my friends. EXCEPT the dreaded Vaio Vista, 25 hrs of battle and I never got XP installed. For me these struggles beat any game. Here I can lose, take real risks, etc
Cheers:-D

 

Well it seems the drivers will not be a problem with XP, but if you find the graphics a problem, I solved a similar one installing the chipset driver, as looking for vga on drivers did not give me that option.

 

I had tried sys restore, but I just tried the oldest point, dvd isw back. THX for the help.
Mannshands

 

Well done- just shows, System restore can solve a lot of problems.

my favourite saying

Sometimes the obvious eludes us:wave