Where'd my DVD drive go?

[methanogenesis]

I was in the middle of watching a DVD on my PC when it froze. Ctrl-alt-del and the like failed to work so I restarted. But after restarting, I went to finish the movie and the DVD drive appeared nonexistent. I completely shut off the computer, unplugged it, then plugged it back in and rebooted it but to no avail. Everything else seems to be working fine except that the DVD drive isn't there. This has happened before and the only way I can fix it is to unplug it but this time even that doesn't seem to do the trick. Any advice on why this is happening or how to fix it?
Thanks.

(I put this as an emergency because I'm at the very end of the movie and I want to know what happens! If nobody can help, does anyone want to tell me how The Hunt For Red October ends?...:tongue2: )

[profdlp]

...(I put this as an emergency because I'm at the very end of the movie and I want to know what happens! If nobody can help, does anyone want to tell me how The Hunt For Red October ends?...:tongue2: )
They all die. :cheers:

[methanogenesis]

They all die. :cheers:

thanks for the tech help... :doh:

[profdlp]

Try going into the BIOS and making sure that the IDE Channel with the DVD drive is set to "Auto" (or cdrom, if that's an option). Reboot, then go into Device Manager and click on View>>Show hidden devices. Uninstall every instance of the DVD drive you find.

Then go to the IDE Controller and make sure the Channel where the drive is attached is set to "DMA if available" (probably under "Advanced" somewhere).

Reboot once more and see if the drive is detected properly, then check the DMA setting again. :cheers:

[methanogenesis]

Ok... I'll look through those setup settings...
thanks.

Actually, my daughter used my SN to post the query. I think it's just a cheap DVD drive, our box fan is too small, and the motor overheats and stalls after running for 90 minutes. It's always near the end of the movies... :)

If we turn the machine off and unplug the cord for an hour, it reboots and sees the drive again.

Thanks, for the tips, though. I'll give it a try if running the box with the lid off doesn't improve things.... ;)

I like your Bullwinkle.