Compaq Presario -- CD Drives gone !

[Voetsjoeba]

Hello everybody :)

I need help with a computer problem again, I'm afraid. This time it involves my CD and DVD drive. They work one time I start my computer, and another time they don't. It's totally random and I don't know what to do about it.

When booting the computer (Compaq Presario 5000 Series), a screen with the compaq logo comes up instead of the regular boot text (231324 RAM OK, IDE 1 MAster DVD Device ... and so on). I noticed that everytime the drives don't work anymore after a reboot, this message is displayed right after the screen with the compaq logo has gone:


The following configuration(s) have been automatically updated:
Disk1[40.0GB]


This message only appears at the boot at which the drives don't work anymore. Sometimes, it displays this message before the one above:


The following configuration(s) have been automatically updated:
Disk1[40.0GB], Drive1[CD], Drive2[DVD]


But after this, it places the one with only Disk1 right after, so it doesn't make any difference.

Another weird thing is that sometimes, without displaying either of these messages, the drives suddenly DO work. Just like that. And when I reboot, the message displays and they're gone again. Does anybody know what to do about this ? I suppose I need to disable this auto-configuration and make the computer detect both drives, but I have no idea how one would achieve that. Any help at all apprecitaed :)

[APDesign]

Well, if you are comfortable cracking open that case and messing around inside, then you might be able to fix the problem. The first thing to do is check the IDE cables, they are the flat grey cables that connect to your motherboard (unless they are rounded IDE for some reason, but they probably aren't on a Compaq.) Just unplug them and plug them back in making sure they are secure. You can see if that fixes the problem, but chances are you will have to do more. I don't know if you know anything about "masters" and "slaves" but I'm assuming that you have an IDE cable coming from your motherboard into your hard drive (primary master) and then another one coming from your motherboard into your DVD (secondary master) and then into your CD-ROM (secondary slave.) So, it would probably look something like this. On the back of your drives you'll see a "jumper" configuration similar to this.
http://www.hwupgrade.it/articoli/660/jumper.jpg
those white things are the jumpers (they might be black on your drive) and above that it shows the configuration to make it master or slave. I'm guessing that you're drives are set for "cable select" meaning the cable configuration is setting up the master/slave chain. What you want to do is set the DVD to master and the CD to slave (assuming those are the two on the same IDE cable, otherwise set your Hard drive to master, and whatever is connected to it to slave.) All hardware configurations are different, so if the master/slave configuration isn't on the drive itself you are probably going to have to look up the model numbers of the drives and find it on the internet. Compaq probably doesn't provide the information in any manuals (but it's worth a check, I suppose.) If the drives are already set properly as master and slave and not set for cable select. If that wasn't the problem (which is entirely possible) you should check the Compaq website for a new BIOS driver or update for your model number. In fact, do that first since it would be a lot easier. Aside from that, I don't know what to tell you other than good luck. How old is that computer? You might still be under warranty, in which case you could just take it to a certified place and get it fixed for free.

Heres some additional info that might help while looking inside the computer. I think it's mainly talking about hard drives but all the hardware info would still apply to any IDE drive.

http://freepctech.com/pc/001/installing_ide_devices.shtml

Hopefully this will help and it's not just some crazy motherboard error. :-/

[Voetsjoeba]

Thanks for the reply APDesign. My configuration is indeed HD as master on the primary IDE Controller, and the two other drives on the secondary IDE Controller. However, I don't know for usre if these two drives are correctly set as master and slave. They should be, because the drives used to work before.

It might be possible they're on Cable Select, I haven't checked. There's very little space to look and/or move in there. I'll check and change if necessary. This info might be of use too: a while ago, this computer was behaving very weird. It kept rebooting for no reason at all. It turned out it was some motherboard error, so we got it replaced. Maybe the new motherboard that's in it now is having trouble with the drives ? I don't know ...

But how would you explain the fact that the drives work at random times ? Does that have anything to do with Cable Select or the BIOS ? About the BIOS, I've read that flashing it is VERY dangerous and delicate ...

[Voetsjoeba]

Ok, so I opened up the computer and had a look at the IDE Configuration. Both drives were set to Cable Select. I changed the DVD drive to Master and the CD drive to Slave using the jumpers, and rebooted. Everything seemed to work fine: the leds on the two drives lit up (which they do if they work and don't if they don't work), and the message


The following configuration options have been automatically updated:
Disk1 40.0[GB], Drive1[DVD], Drive2[CD]


I though: "Alright, maybe it's gonna work now", but it's still not working. I've also tried set the BIOS to default settings but it still didn't work. I got some other advice that it's most likely a matter of the BIOS, and that I should flash it. However, I'm kinda afraid of doing this, because if I screw up, the whole computer is screwed. And I mean screwed not-repairable.

[λ]

You could reset the BIOS.. I've never done it myself, but if you take the BIOS battery out and leave it out for quite some while, then put it back in, the BIOS loses all the configuration options you've changed, and resets back to defaults.

[Voetsjoeba]

Dude !

There's an option in the BIOS that sets it to the default settings too you know ;)

More info.
I checked the compaq support section to see if I could find anything about this matter, and to my surprise, I did. It had lots of info and ways to solve this, but the first requirement to continue the steps was to make sure that the setup (the BIOS) recognizes the drives (which it doesn't). If not, so it said, I should check the cables. That's exactly what I did :-/

[grimdeath]

Originally posted by njs12345
You could reset the BIOS.. I've never done it myself, but if you take the BIOS battery out and leave it out for quite some while, then put it back in, the BIOS loses all the configuration options you've changed, and resets back to defaults.


Theres a red jumper on your motherboard which resets your bios completely so theres really no need to take out the battery, and my advice is try changing the ide ribbon cables it could be your problem and dont flash your bios unless you have searched and found out the motherboard has been known to have issues with the hardware you have added if any.

[Voetsjoeba]

Well, I did search the Compaq site for this problem as said above, but it required the drives to be already found in the setup which they aren't ... But today, they're back. I did a cold shutdown yesterday evening ... and today they're back. I'm sure that if I shut down normally this evening they'll be gone tomorrow ...

[Niann]

Compaq drives need to be set on cable select. Thats how they come from the factory, and should stay that way. The messages you are getting when you boot up are BIOS messages, telling you that the BIOS either sees the drives or it does not. This does not appear to be a software problem at all. I would flash the BIOS too see if that helps. You can download the proper ROMpaq from HP/Compaq's support site. As long as ou follow the directions it should be ok. If that doest work, I would guess that there is something wrong with the controllers built into the system board. If thats the case you have a couple options. You could replace the system board (costly) or, disable the built in controllers and get a PCI IDE controller card. (much cheaper).

Cheers!
-Niann

[Voetsjoeba]

Well, I got around the problem making a sacrifice. I disconnected the IDE Cable and the Power Supply from the CD ROM Drive/Burner, and now it recognizes the DVD reader without any problem at all. I haven't had any problems since then. I gave up the cd burning ability, but if that's the price I have to pay ... I'm willing to pay it.