Need help (no duh)

[Jurgen_Mudvayne]

Basically I ripped my brother's PC apart and used it's meatier bits to upgrade my pc. Basically all I got was the DVD drive and his HD. The DVD drive is working fine but for some reason my PC no longer recognises that existance of my CD rewriter. Whereas the CD drive was D:, now the DVD drive is D: and the CD drive is just not shown.

Windows help was about as much use as a knife up the ass so I'm here pleading with you guys to see if you can help.

[gwai lo]

hmm....nerds...? I'll let you off this once....

Did you plug the DVD drive and RW drive on the same IDE cable? Because if you plugged it in with the hard drive funky stuff tends to happen and your comp won't detect one or the other

[Symbiotic Hat]

Check Windows Disk Management just to see if Windows screwed up and assigned the drives the same letter (it's happened to me before). Also check to see if your jumpers are set correctly.

[Nodiaque]

1) Check bios configuration, does all of your ide are enable and on auto-detection? (If bios doesn't detect 1 of your drive on startup, that doesn't help!)

2) Try uninstalling every drive from your computer via system properties in safe mode (except hd)

3) Check your jumper configuration, are there any conflicting configuration (both on master or slave)

4) Check ide capable (maybe upside down?)

5) Check pin of drive (some ide cable have blocked pin so when you put them on the wrong side, you punch a pin in your drive, putting it useless... there should be only 1 pin "missing" in the drive)

BTW, it's geeks and not nerds...

[Jurgen_Mudvayne]

I can't assign drive letters to a drive that doesn't show up on the computer

[Jurgen_Mudvayne]

Can't get into BIOS screen because of the windows XP loading screen

[Symbiotic Hat]

I can't assign drive letters to a drive that doesn't show up on the computer

Just because it's not listed in My Computer doesn't mean that the PC does not see it.

Check disk management like I said before.

[Jurgen_Mudvayne]

I've looked through the system panel and it doesn't show up

[insanekiwi]

check for new hardware under device manager. then try to assign a driver letter under administration/disc manager.

[tim_ehat]

Do you have the jumpers for master/slave set properly?

[Colin-uk Veteran]

Can't get into BIOS screen because of the windows XP loading screen

press DEL before it gets to the loading screen (?)

(or whatever key you press to get into the BIOS)

[Jurgen_Mudvayne]

The Loading screen comes up the second the PC power switch goes on

[gwai lo]

The Loading screen comes up the second the PC power switch goes on

press power and start pressing "del" or "f2" like mad until the BIOS comes up....and maybe it's just your monitor that's displaying it slowly....so next time you turn on your PC try turning on the monitor and letting it "warm up" for a couple of seconds then turn it on and you'll be able to see the POST and Video BIOS and stuff...cuz you won't just jump right into the loading screen

[Jurgen_Mudvayne]

Mine does, I've been button mashing delete like a maniac on a fighting game but no dice

[Nodiaque]

The Loading screen comes up the second the PC power switch goes on

I doubt about it, every pc have a bios... The only one that need something special is old compaq deskpro computer that are 400 mhz and less... these require a floppy, but still, they take 5 minutes to get to windows loading screen...

Do this:

1) Press power on your computer

2) Press and Press and Press (don't old, press many time and don't stop until you see the bios or windows startup) the "DEL" key right after pressing the power switch (don't care that the monitor isn't light up, that don't mean your computer isn't booting)

You should get to the bios...

If it doesn't work, try with F2 and ESCAPE...

You can also use the "Break" key, which allow you to stop the loading of the bios before the windows screen load, so you can see if it's another key then those 3.

[drprotos]

pls check your master/slave configuration, if it's not sata drives

[Jurgen_Mudvayne]

I have a HD, a CD and a DVD drive on one cable. The HD is set to Master. The others are slave. Am I doing something wrong?

[Nodiaque]

hmmm... wait a minute, hd, cd and dvd on 1 cable???? Are you on SCSI or SATA??? Because this not something that can happen with IDE... (Also, don't mistake with the power cable ;))

[Jurgen_Mudvayne]

Long ribbon cable, 3 plugs, go figure

[Nodiaque]

that is not the fact, 3 plugs DOESN'T exist in IDE... here is how IDE works:

You have 2 IDE bay, IDE Primary and Secondary.

Each bay have 2 subbay, Master/Slave...

How much pin are there in your drive? (for the cable)

*edit

You can also check in "system properties" in "hard drive" to know if your hd are SCSI/IDE/SATA

[Colin-uk Veteran]

ive not heard of an IDE cable with three plugs either

could you try putting one of your devices on a secondry IDE and see if that makes a difference?

[Jurgen_Mudvayne]

Not got a secondary IDE, not got a decent computer shop for quite a long distance and it's going to take a while to get to a good one. Sod it if neowin can't help then I am well and truly buggered

[markwolfe Veteran]

Long ribbon cable, 3 plugs, go figure

You didn't plug from DVD to CD to Hard Drive, did you?

An IDE cable has 3 plugs, but one of them goes to the motherboard.

[EDIT: If your cable has more than 1 plug for the mother board, and 2 device connections (total of 3), then it isn't an IDE cable. Certainly not one that will work. IDE supports only ONE master, and ONE optional slave device. You cannot add a third device on a single channel.]

[Nodiaque]

well, it's not only the cable, but the fact that actually no bios support it...

Like my deskpro 2000... he don't even support 2 drive on the same ide!!! the bios only support master on both bay...

[Nodiaque]

You didn't plug from DVD to CD to Hard Drive, did you?

An IDE cable has 3 plugs, but one of them goes to the motherboard.

oh dam.... didn't think 'bout that lol... never though this could be thinked by someone.... but... I don't think he did that by the fact that he see the rest of the devices, there is only 1 missing...

got a secondary IDE, not got a decent computer shop for quite a long distance and it's going to take a while to get to a good one. Sod it if neowin can't help then I am well and truly buggered

I doubt 'bout it since my 286 have 2 ide bay...

If you have all those thing in that computer, you must have 2 bay... you won't even be able to look at that board if you haven't a board with 2 ide...

*edit

I just remember something, try putting all your drive (except the master) to "cable select" in the jumper conf instead of slave...