CD-Drive Where are you?Follow

Hello everyone, I am somewhat new to posting here. I recently fell into a problem, and was hoping someone here could toss me a rope. I am just a PC gamer who knows how to point and click. So I will try to give the best info. about my PC prob. as possible. I'm not to knowlegable about my PC, and what not. So with that said, here I go...
I recently had to have my PC serviced after an eletrical storm blow out. The PC would not start up, and all that would happen after pressing start button. Is The Fan would start to run then stop. I beleive (not sure Exactly) that the motherboard was fried, then again it may have been a Virus of some sort. Now my PC is back home a running almost like new. But i can not access my CD Drivers. Not sure exactly how to title them, so I will describe them simply. The two CD trays I use to play Music CDs, DVDs, and the second cd drive I use for Burning CDs. I have tried to play a music CD by inserting into the tray, and waiting for it to start playing in media player. But nothing would happen. Also there are no icons to open the drives under the "My Computer" icon. I have also tried to open files through program browser, the drives are once again not listed. Any ideas on how I can play my music CDs, or Burn CDs again. Do I need to take my PC back to BestBuy? Thank you in advance to those who offer support. ^^;








Edited, Jul 23rd 2006 at 9:18pm EDT by SothsayerAtlantis

Edited, Aug 5th 2006 at 11:53am EDT by SothsayerAtlantis

CD drives these days don't need drivers or anything to work, You just ned them plugged into power, and data cabled to the board. The two drives are going to be connected to a single ribbon cable that plugs into a slot on the board. Power off your computer, open up the case, and make sure that cable is plugged into the motherboard firmly. Next make sure the power cables are plugged into both drives.

If that doesn't do the trick, try removing the power cables and replacing with a different strand from the power supply. If that does fix the issue, you will want to replace the entire power supply, because it will fail soon. Even if you don't get data, if the drives are getting power you should see them light up when the computer boots.

If you have power, but not data after seating the cable, the cable itself could be bad. Replace it with a new one from any computer store, they run about $4.00.

If that still doesn't fix the issue, one of two things is going on. You either fried both drives at the same time, hard to do without burning out the entire computer, so unlikely, or you burned out your data port on the motherboard. If the latter is the case and the computer is under warrenty, then you will want to get it replaced. If the former, well drives are cheap and it may be worth your time just to replace them so your computer is not down for an extended period of time.