i've been having problems with my dvd drive lately. it seems like it started when my dad took the computer apart to put in a new fan that he ended up returning. he took apart the power supply a little :wall: , and sprayed the @*$& out of it with compressed air (computer duster). I forget if he unpluged any cables, but he wore our little grounded wrist strap. It wont read read any disks. Microsoft doesn't have any new drivers for it. gateway doesn't have any drivers for it. it spins up and makes a grinding noise, then stops. when i click on it through my computer it says to insert a disk. i figured it was a driver issue, like on my other computer, but when i try to update the driver, it says the only one is installed. so i went to gateway's website, and downloaded and ran their little driver finder thing. I told it to look in the E: drive, and put in the driver disk. it just found a driver for the SR-8587. i figured that was close enough, and installed it. after reboot i went do device manager, and it had disappeared. so i did a system restore, and all was well. i was geting desprate so i put in the driver disk, and opened it. I try to do a (restore) it tells me to click restart. when i do it opens the dvd drive (secondary master) and tells me to put the disk in that drive. i do and it just brings up an error. i don't know if i should make it the secondary slave, and make my functioning cd drive the secondary master until i can reinstall windows ME. will it come to reinstalling the Os. i plan to, but my parents want to wait for a "rainy day." please help.

 

:pray: :pray: :pray:

Taking apart psu unit :( *ouch*

 

 

 

 

 

I can't offer any solid advice besides that which you've probably arent thought of- making sure every power cable is connected.

did you void the warrenty? If not, just exchange it and say that ones busted. No skin off your back...

Power supplies can hold enough charge in their capacitors to kill you, I got a nasty burn on my hand due to not leaving the psu to discharge long enough before opening it up, make sure your dad knows of the dangers before opening it up again next time.

 

 

 

Firstly make sure all the cables are connected fully and in the right ports.

 

 

 

then try a different power connector (red, 2 black and yellow connector)

 

 

 

then try using a different IDE cable leading to the drive

 

 

 

If that fails try plugging it into a different IDE port.

 

 

 

It should be able to read cds without drivers, all the cd/dvd writers I've used have been able to, they are mostly just plug and play so I'm suspecting its a hardware issue.

it opens, and even spins up when i put a disk in it, but it won't recognise anyting. there must be some comunication with motherboard, because i can tell it to open with the "eject" command, and it will. I almost think the laser module, may be fried, or maybe it isn't getting enough power to spin up to cd speed. as for warranty we broke the sticker so it is shot. even before that our warrany expired.