as soon as i start up my computer, i see the dvd drive detected but when windows is on i dont see the dvd drive in my computers.
whats wrong? its not in the device manager list right about now

Assuming it is an IDE drive and assuming it is on the Secondary IDE channel you can Uninstall the Secondary IDE channel and reboot.

This will force XP to reload drivers and re detect hardware.

You can do this via the Device Manager > IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers


ALSO:


CD drive filters etc.
--------------------------------------------------
If you feel comfortable editing the registry, here are some steps:

Click the Start button, click Run. In the Open box, type regedit and then click OK.
Click the plus sign (+) next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
Click the plus sign (+) next to SYSTEM.
Click the plus sign (+) next to CurrentControlSet.
Click the plus sign (+) next to Control.
Click the plus sign (+) next to Class.
Click {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}.

Once here click File in the upper left corner and choose: Export (this key)
Export to your Documents as a backup. If needed you can go back to this file and Import it back.

Then:

On the right hand side of the window, click UpperFilters.
Click Edit on the menu bar.
Click Delete, and then click OK.
On the right-hand side of the window, click LowerFilters.
Click Edit on the menu bar.
Click Delete, and then click OK.
Click File, and then click Exit. Restart the computer normally


Also check UDMA/PIO settings under your IDE channel in the Device Manager.

If set to DMA try changing to PIO.

thx! trying the device manager one

i was just checking out the registry one. i have more than one controlset. there were 5. so i couldn go beyond that step.

Let us know if the "device manger one" works.

under IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers
i have
primary IDE channel
primary IDE channel
secondary IDE channel
secondary IDE channel
standard dual channel PCI IDE Controller
standard dual channel PCI IDE Controller

WHICH one should i unistall??

abt the IDE drive... i have a SATA port dvd drive, does that make a difference?

Yes that makes a difference.

The point is you want to uninstall this drive.

If it is not detected in the device manager as a drive itself you need to uninstall the port.

Or just go in and physically unplug it then re boot then shutdown then go back and plug it back in and reboot again.

Also verify that the BIOS sees it.

guess what!?? i posted a computer freezing problem here before and i think the dvd drive was causing the freezing. cos now that i think of it and checked whenever the dvd drive worked the computer freezes and whenever it doesnt, it doesnt freezes.

i replaced the dvd drive with an old one. works okay now.

i think the drives a fake or something. its a sony but i thinking it must be fake to cause the freezing.

how can u tell if it the authentic product?

If it is functional the make and model will be identified in both the BIOS and the Device Manager.

If it is a Sony it will say so.

well it did say its song in the bios. wonder what made it pop then?? causing all the freezing and all??