[hsmomx3]

Thank you so much!!

[gorush]

A similar thing happened to me once. Try re-seating the electrical connections to the CD Rom inside the box, that’s probably it. It is a long bar of connections and sometimes a second smaller two or three pronged connector.

[trumandogz]

This link should be of help.

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/mac_pro?mco=MTE2NjQ

[philsfan24]

ive had this problem several tiems before with my old compaq. try turning the computer off, opening the box and unhooking the ide ribbon cable from the cd rom and plugging it back in.

[OL Hickory]

if using XP try this:

control panel,system,hardware,device manager

on the top you should see file,action,view,help

Click “action”
click “scan for hardware changes”

did your drive appear?

[VanillaBlizzard]

If none of these ideas work....just buy new one they’re pennies on the dollar nowdays.

You can even get burners for cheap.

[Mr. K]

allow me to be the first...

Ahem...

ARE YOU LOGGED ON?

[dangerdoc]

CD/DVD have in my experience been the least reliable component in my computers. I have changed out at least 10 over the years.

If you have a laptop, they can be a little tricky to replace but doable.

If you have a PC tower, it should be very easy. Unless your computer is a dinosaur, I would recommend buying a DVD/CD burner. Open the case, remove two cables, and four screws and it should slide out and a new one should slide right in, replace the screws and cables, close the case and boot up.

[normanpubbie]

Thx for giving model number -- sure helps! According to tech specs, this model came with Windows XP and CD-ROM drive. First step is to go to desktop and right click on My Computer and left click on Properties. Then left click on Hardware and left click on Device Manager. You should see a DVD/CD-ROM drives category. If so, click on plus sign to left and look for CD-ROM drive. Second step: If category or drive is not listed, make sure Computer or DVD/CD-ROM is highlighted then drop Action menu and left click Scan for Hardware Changes. After a few seconds, the CD-ROM drive should show up in the listing. If it does, you are good to go. Third step: Put a CD in the drive (any good CD will work) and watch the light on the drive faceplate to see that it flickers and listen for the CD to spin up. If light continues to flash at a 50% on-off rate, drive motor or CD is probably bad. CD and DVD drives typically fail because the loading or rotation mechanism goes bad. If drive is bad, no sweat -- drives are fairly inexpensive and they are standardized so that any will work. Recommend that if drive is bad, replace it with a CD-RW drive or DVD-RW drive so you can burn your own CD's or DVD's. Here is a link for Dell instructions on opening case, replacing parts, etc.:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim2350/

[csvset]

Hmm. I’ve had my Dell computer think it no longer had the CD & or CDRW drive. Sometimes a simple reboot will correct it. Other times I’ve had to reinstall the driver for the device.

[TomGuy]

I have this in my bookmarks on the subject:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060/EN-US/
You can no longer access the CD drive or the DVD drive, or you receive an error message after you remove a CD recording program or a DVD recording program in Windows XP: “error code 31”

[slnk_rules]

First thing to do is always power down the machine, open it up, and disconnect and then reconnect the power source, and then reconnect the IDE ribbon to both the drive and the motherboard. Then see if the drive shows up. Usually in situations like this, you have a bad controller on the motherboard.

If it is a single connection ribbon, then it is more likely the controller, but you MAY be able to get a two connection ribbon and change the pins on the cd to set it as a slave drive. If you have two cds (I could not tell from your description), then it is a good bet you have a bad controller. If you do, your options are three:

1) Get a new mobo. Dell boards are everywhere. Get a board off ebay and pay some teenager coke and pizza to put it in for you.
2) Buy an ide slot controller. These used to be quite common on ebay. You plug it into an isa slot and it controls the drives (be sure to turn OFF the controller in the cmos, if there is such a setting)
3) buy a new machine

I think it is a controller, rather than the drive, as you almost never see two drives fail at once.

[wildbill]

dude, this disappearing CD problem sounds very much like the socks that disappear in my washing machine.

I believe they are transported to another dimension along with all my missing sunglasses and Cross pens.

[savil76]

My CD-Rom disappeared too and I don’t know so much about computers so
I’ve got this little program from http://cdromdisappeared.com
With one click it made my CD-Rom re-appear.
Eric