Laptop Disc drive not working.

I've got this old laptop, Patriot 3040 (not much info anywhere about it) and the DvD-ROM CDRW drive just doesn't see discs, nor does it even make any attempt to, nothing, nada.

It appears in my computer, it appears in dvmngr, all looks ok but still doesnt work at all.

I have tried all kinds and brands of Pressed, burned & blank DVD's and CD's.

I havn't got a compatable drive to test and can't connect the drive to anything else.

So any suggestions, before i have to spend some pennies on adaptors and/or new drives?

DVD_Disc drive is called --> SBW-242B [made by: Quanta storage, inc]

Patriot_3040
XP_Home_SP3
30GB HDD
512 RAM
1.2ghz

 

To late to edit:

EDIT: It's the Patriot 3040 - G320 series.

 

I know the title is misleading but this article supports other issues too: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060/EN-US/

 

Hey colin, thanks for the reply mate.

I just tried it and there are no upper or lower filters to delete in the registry.


Any other ideas anyone?


Q

 

Q - don't know if you've attempted this yet, but you might try changing your boot order and booting to a system disk: whether it boots or not pretty much splits your troubleshooting procedure in half...

 

Tried it, and it sees the drive but doesn't see the disc inside it.



(i've found some adapto thingymabob that will let me hook it up to another PC, it only costs £2.99 so i think that will be my next step (then probably a new drive)


Q

 

Have you tried booting from a system disk (windows or a linux live CD)? If the computer bypasses the optical drive and then proceeds to boot from the hard drive, the optical drive is gone.

 

Thanks for the reply Plodr, Yeah i've tried booting a few live discs Ubuntu, DSL, Puppy to name a few, and none of them worked. I even tried removing the HDD, so ther was no other boot devices.

I've just got this niggling feeling when i connect the Disc drive to my PC tomorow it will work...
and that it is the lappy that is wonked.

Q

 

Hot damn, my spidey senses where spot on


The DVD drive works when i connect it to another computer.

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Any ideas What that means for the Laptop?


Q

 

Drivers have been reinstalled a few times now.


I din't think about chipset, so will give that a go, the only thing is this lappy is some shops-own-brand (dixons) 6yr old POS, with an old AMI BIOS and info and support is scarce.

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Honestly this lappy is minutes away from having a serious relationship with my living room wall!