Got a question for anyone who knows hardware and XP

Shaggy

Vice Admiral
I recently had to replace my CD burner drive and since GTA San Andreas was out, and DVD only, I decided to pick up a DVD burner to replace my old drive. I installed the new drive and Windows automatically installed the drivers for it, I think, but now it won't show up in My Computer. Checking out the drive listing in the device manager shows the proper model number but gives me a Code 41 error message, stating that the driver was loaded properly but it can't find the device. I tried the Microsoft help site that comes up from the device manager troubleshooter, of course that's never helped me any, and I even tried swapping cables.
So anybody got any ideas or advice?
 
That the drive is even showing up in the Device Manager tells me you've probably got it installed correctly. Of course, it's pretty hard to install an IDE drive incorrectly these days, what with the cable being keyed to only go in one way (that generally being with pin 1 facing the drive's power connector on the right).

Do be sure, however, that the IDE cable didn't get loosened from the motherboard while you were installing the drive. It happens.

Also you might check that the BIOS is set to either Auto or CD-ROM on the channel the drive is on. At the same time, if there's another drive on that IDE cable, be sure the master/slave jumpers are set on the drives.

What brand and model is the DVD drive, by the way? It never hurts to update the firmware for those things, though if it's not working now that likely won't fix it. On the other hand, if the firmware updating program can communicate with the drive, then we know it's installed correctly and is just somehow defective.
 
Did you check that all cables (data and electricity) are correct on the drive?
Did you select the proper master/slave settings?
Does the drive work outside of Windows? Does it show up in BIOS? Does it work in DOS?
Does the drive work mechanically (does the tray go in and out)?
 
Shaggy said:
I installed the new drive and Windows automatically installed the drivers for it, I think, but now it won't show up in My Computer. Checking out the drive listing in the device manager shows the proper model number but gives me a Code 41 error message, stating that the driver was loaded properly but it can't find the device.

It's could easily be the other way around. There may be special software or firmware updates that the drive needs to function. Your Windows itself may not be updated enough to automatically handle the drive.
 
The drive is brand new so everything works mechanically. There were no driver disks with it, the drive came on it's own in the shipping box. There wasn't even a commercially printed box the drive came in, just it and the packing materials.
I went into the BIOS and was able to change the secondary master to DVDRW, it was already set to Auto, there was also an ARMD setting but I don't know what that's for. Either way it still hasn't worked.
Thinking back I, I believe my old drive started showing up with the Code 41 just before I took it out. The reason I had to replace it in the first place was the tray was physically out of whack, I had to lift it each time I needed to eject it. If I didn't get it to eject properly the first time, and there was an Autoplayable CD in the drive, next time I hit the eject button it would read as a new disk being put in and start whatever is on the disk.
So that's the history of everything I can remember that's gone wrong with this particular attachment, although my floppy drive has never worked even though it's showed as being installed properly, and that's after two different drives.
 
TurboTim07 said:
you said it didn't come with a commercially printed box? how did you get the drive?
I bought the drive from newegg.com, and the lisitng showed that it was supposed to come with burner software. I went through my brother, who builds computers as a side job, so maybe I'll just wait till he gets back from camping and have him fix it.
I'll try the Microsoft solution though, thanks KrisV
 
Shaggy said:
I bought the drive from newegg.com, and the lisitng showed that it was supposed to come with burner software. I went through my brother, who builds computers as a side job, so maybe I'll just wait till he gets back from camping and have him fix it.
I'll try the Microsoft solution though, thanks KrisV

Sounds Like they sent you an OEM version... Some don't come with a software CD and they almost never come in ta box... just in a anti-static bag. Maybe he ordered one "no sw" instead of "w/ sw" On the other hand some online sellers will say if it has software but not say anything id it doesnt. I'm sure it's an easy mistake to make. If you already had nero (or other burning software) from a previous CD writer installation. You may need to remove it before installing the new drive. However, if its a relatively new version, there is no reason why it shouldnt work with your new DVD Drive. So if it works, try reinstalling it after you get your DVD working.
 
I'd try putting the Windows XP disk in the drive. Hopefully it will spin up the disk and install some drivers. Ofcourse I havent put any hardware into a machine since windows 98 so it may not have drivers on it. But I think it's worth a try.

If that doest work you can always figure out the brand name and model number by looking on the drive or on the shipping invoice. Then go online and search for the drivers/software.

The drive itself is just a wholesale part, so it never had a disk with it. For example, motherboards come shrinkwraped 30 boards a box.
 
Wel KrisV if I could I'd buy you a drink, but I'm broke so no. :D
But the solution on theMicrosoft page worked so thanks for pointing me there. :)
 
Back
Top