Random BIOS detections

[WorldIndustries]

Hey, first post here =)

Anyway. Lately I've been having trouble with my CDRW. It's RANDOMLY detected in bios (sometimes is, sometimes isn't). I've switched headers, switched cables, and my CDRW still get's randomly detected. HD is ALWAYS detected.

People say it's my mobo, but I think it's the CD drive. I've already replaced the power source, which didn't help.

Earler on, my HD went randomly detected too, as well as the master/slave displayed on bios being random. Now it's just the CD-RW not always being detected, and when it is detected, shown as secondary slave like it should.

Can someone help me figure out what's going on before I have to order a new mobo and CD drive?

 

[Elbatrop1]

I would definitely try a new CMOS battery. Sometimes when things arent being stored properly in the CMOS memory, you might have funny problems like this.

 

[Nitestick]

take elbatrops advice first. if that fails try a different cd-drive. also try using only the cd-drive and see if that influences the way it is detected

 

[WorldIndustries]

If the CMOS battery was dying, wouldn't it be resetting the date and my BIOS settings? Because it's not.

My settings in BIOS are still what they were. And I would've been able to detect the CDRW myself in the BIOS settings, but I can't. It just appears as nothing.

I bought ANOTHER IDE cable, so I know it's not the IDE cables, or the power supply. Testing a new CD drive in it tomorrow. If it STILL doesn't detect, I'll get a new CMOS battery (hard to find here, because of where I live). And if THAT doesn't work, I'll be ordering a new (and fairly cheap) replacement mobo.

Am I missing out on anything else it could be?

By the way, I noticed my mobo has a few leaking capacitors. So I'm guessing that could play a large factor in this.

 

[RicoDirenzo]

If the battery were bad you would be getting a checksum error at initial boot, which you are not. You need to check the IDE cable seating and integrity. One thingto try is to delete the secondary IDE protocol in control panel/system/Hardware/Device Manager/IDE ATA/Atapi and find your Sedondary IDE and delete it. Reboot and it should find all cdroms/Dvdroms ect. after reboot. Let me know what happens.

 

[WorldIndustries]

Rico, tried that. Still doestn't detect.

Also tried removing the HD, seeing if the CD drive would detect. That wouldn't either.

Gonna' wait 'til I get this server someone's giving me, and take the CD drive out of that. Might be a week or so.

At this point I STILL think it's the mobo. CD drives just don't do this kind of stuff. They either work fine, or don't work at all. There's usually no 'in-between'.

 

[SHAWN]

It sounds like a motherboard issue to me as well.

 

[WorldIndustries]

Hm. Important question. Should a CDRW power up and be able to open and close if ONLY the power connector is connected, and not the IDE cable?

 

[Nitestick]

yes it should. by the way, while it may be unusual for a cd to work only some of the time but it does happen so i wouldn't rule it out even if it is unlikely.

 

[WorldIndustries]

Okay then. Finally starting to make sense. My CD drive doesn't power up at all sometimes, as if it wasn't connected to anything. It won't open, read light doesn't flash when computer is started up.

So, if the CD drive is dying, and doesn't power up sometimes, it makes sense that it wouldn't be detected. I'm going to try this CD drive in another system, to see if this keeps happening.