Bios not recognizing CD Rom

My system is not recognizing my cd rom all the time and it does not show up in bios correctly. bios shows there is something there when done manually but it still leaves a blank spot in the boot order menu. at start up it shows an ATPCI cd rom but properties show manufacturer as W%in' 740 b. it will sometimes show up in my computer as a dvd/cd rom or just a cd rom and some times it wont show up at all. (think it has to do with planetary alignment).

when i first loaded XP Home it worked fine till "Mr. Download the entire internet showed up"( me) and got a really bad trojan thru frostwire. after a check sum error, cd rom showed as incompatable. cleared the cmos and now shows ATPCI Where before had HP 740b dvd rom. i reinstalled windows one more time. no change. then i thought ok maybe bios problem so went to ecs and got the newest bios for my board. no change. ide header is on, loaded default settings and enabled sata( HDD are SATA).

it shows somthing there but boot priorety has a blank name. drive should be good had for two years but been in box all but 2 months. reads cds and dvds but shows an error after it tries to auto run. throws the same error when started in my computer. When it even shows up. driver says its using a generic windows driver right now and device manager shows its working fine. when it shows up.

CDrom is set to c/s and have tried multipul cables (80wire)

ECS GF8200M-A mobo, Crucial Ram, Hitachi Deskstar 400 Gig, AMD Athlon 64 6000+, HP 740b LightScribe DVD/CD Burner, 550w PSU

 

Try going to the manufacturers site and downloading the latest firmware for your model drive, follow their directions carefully (make sure the drive is empty no disk in) and flash the drives bios. Even flashing with the same bios as it has now and over writing the scrambled one could help. If you want to know what the bios is, go to Device Manager and if its listed under DVD/CD-ROM drives, right click properties and look under the Details Tab and near the middle of the listed string will be a set of numbers or letters or both, usually 3 or 4 of them. My Plextor lists (IDE\CDROMPLEXTOR_CD-R__PREMIUM___________1.06__\5&31D9f etc.) the firmware version is 1.06.

I once had problems with Roxio corrupting my firmware and the drive would not be recognized. Until I uninstalled Roxio (actually I ended up having to format and reinstall) the firmware would not hold, so I kept having to reflash with the same version and it would be ok for a while. So if Roxio can screw with with firmware then I'm sure a virus could too, and you can install the same firmware over itself over and over again, that I proved by doing it. If after flashing the rom drive you still have problems let windows reinstall its generic drivers by uninstalling it from Device Manager and rebooting.

 

I remember the sreen flashing when i inserted my windows cd when i first tried to repair windows after i got the virus. it seemed that the virus was very good at protecting it self.

I have just tried another cd rom and i get the same results. i also have tried changing the jumper settings on the rom. always the same results. i had worries that the drive was bad, but thats out the window since it is doing that on the two other drives ive tried. i have yet to hear from ECS.

I have tried to install the firmware but i get an error 2518 i believe is what comes up. i wonder if maybe there is something wrong with the IDE bus there are no bent pins so i dont think its a physical problem.

 

What about reinstalling your motherboard drivers. Perhaps your chipsets are corrupted. There is a thing called a non-destructive reinstall of windows that puts a fresh system set of files in but leaves all your data and programs intact. You lose all critical updates that are not included on your disk though. So having sp3 or sp2 if you don't like 3 handy is a good idea unless its already on your disk. Here's a link to Fred Langa's page where he takes you step by step thru the process.

Code:

http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=ATER1BJCZNSN0QSNDLQSKHSCJUNN2JVN?articleID=189400897&_requestid=319026

 

I will give it a try hopefully my cdrom will work. i tried to get my Windows cd to read today just to see about trying to repair windows files but drive doesnt read anything. maybe it will like the driver cd better?! thanx for the advice

 

Hi New,

The garbled Manufacturer's name may indicate that the Drive has a problem sending data. That info is coded in the firmware on the Drive. Can you try another drive or test that one in another machine?

Good Luck, Jim

 

i have done both. i tried a known good cd rom in my machine and my rom works fine in that other one. i am going to order a new mobo. if that fixes it then i can tinker with my old board or see if ecs can repair that one. could be a new project board. i have enough stuff around to maybe assemble another to try and work this problem out.

MSI K9N2G Neo-FD AM2+ GF8200 RT - Retail seemed to have pretty good reviews and its msi's version of my board i believe.

 

I have found the culprit! at some point in time i must have contacted the board with the case. i thought i was takeing every precaution by unplugging the power source but i never tried to fire up the cpu again to discharge any capacitors. after very close examination i found two burn pins near the IDE interface. wow i did myself in on this one. no warrenty = money down the drain!!