Help my computer doesn’t recognize my cd/dvd rom or my dvd writer. whats wrong?
September 12th, 2008 | 
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sara asked:
I have an hp media center pc m385c that I bought in 2002 or so well the dvd writer it came with didn’t work so I bought an LG super multi dr gsa 4163b and installed it… all went well until this summer when I did a factory reset and tried to reinstall the driver for the LG… I don’t know what I did wrong but now neither my cd/dvd rom (which is what came standard with the comp) nor my LG dvd writer will even show up on the my devices manager or in my computer or even on a search for hardware… please help… i dont know if it was the factory reset or if I contracted a virus
Im using windows xp with service pack 2 should I be looking into that?
I have an hp media center pc m385c that I bought in 2002 or so well the dvd writer it came with didn’t work so I bought an LG super multi dr gsa 4163b and installed it… all went well until this summer when I did a factory reset and tried to reinstall the driver for the LG… I don’t know what I did wrong but now neither my cd/dvd rom (which is what came standard with the comp) nor my LG dvd writer will even show up on the my devices manager or in my computer or even on a search for hardware… please help… i dont know if it was the factory reset or if I contracted a virus
Im using windows xp with service pack 2 should I be looking into that?
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i cannot help you fix it, but i can tell you it is the driver that is missing or corrupted.
It was Windows.
I **** to say it but buy a new computer. too much has changed since 2002… you’ll probably kill yourself trying to make that thing work again. And I would assume that HP is no help whatsoever.
I bought my last PC in 2002 also and my friend said that the battery life of the computer only lasts up to 5 years or so and my computer was doing the same exact thing as yours, what I did was I went into the computer part, I opened up the side and I wiggled the wires inside and I turned my computer on and it worked, you may experience it again but if you wiggle those wires, it should work for a while.
I had something similar happen…I ended up opening up the computer & switching the slave drive to the master, and then the master to slave… and for some reason everything started to work fine…go figure?!?
NOTE: Nothing wrong with XP SR2, but start by going to Windows Update and making sure you’ve got all the updates before you start troubleshooting. You can download XoftSpySE if you think you have malware, and of course update and run your virus program as well before you start.
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This may be complicated so you might consider having a tech service take a look.
Start by going to the Control Panel. Open System, and then select the Hardware Tab, click on the Device Manager button.
This provides an inventory of your resources. If something is not working you’ll get a flag. There may be a driver issue. Make sure you have updated your system and the driver is correct for your system. Then remove the device from the Device manager (you’ll see a button–click on the device and then the button). Now reboot.
Let windows install the device but be sure that the proper driver is selected. If this doesn’t work then you may have a problem in Windows.
The issue may reside in your Directory. I’ve always used Norton Utilities to organize and correct the registry. There may be other programs that do the same. Without such a program even Angels Fear to Tred through the maze.
BTW, I just bought an LG SuperMulti for my laptop (no burner). Smart Gear. Good Luck.