PC Refusing to Acknowledge DVD-R Drive

[saturninus]

I recently have had a peculiar PC problem.

My computer was working fine. I had a DVD-R drive and another DVD/CD-RW drive. The DVD/CD-RW drive stopped reading and I figured it died so I decided to place it with the same exact type and model.

So I did that. The DVD/CD-RW works just fine. The computer acknowledges it. However, it refuses to acknowledge my DVD-R drive both in Windows XP and BIOS. I have tried taking out the DVD/CD-RW drive and isolating the DVD-R drive. No such luck in reading the drive. I have set it to Master, Slave, and Cable Select. Still no luck. I check the power chord and the IDE chord and it seems plugged in just fine.

This is weird, and I have just spent a good four hours trying to solve this problem. Does anyone here have any advice?

[Mesaeus]

So the DVD-R stopped working after your replaced the DVD/CD-RW drive and now it won't work even on its own ? Sounds like whatever took out the old combo drive has also taken a swipe at the dvd-r. Try the dvd-r in another computer with that computer's IDE cable. If it still won't work, it's broken by whatever malicious forces linger in your little ol' pc :D

[saturninus]

Wear killed my old DVD/CD-RW combo drive not some unknown force. My DVD-R drive was in perfect shape before I installed the other drive. I still believe it is in perfect shape.

I want to note a couple more things here.

It takes about ten or fifteen seconds now from the time I hit the power button for the computer to even turn on. I find this very odd.

Although BIOS does not detect my Aopen DVD-R drive Windows XP will ask me to find proper software for it. However, doing so does not get it to work.

The only time BIOS has detected my Aopen drive is when I have both the DVD-R and DVD/CD-RW drive installed and have the jumper settings to Slave on both drives.

[Panama Red]

Your first burner may have "failed" because the real culprit on the ide was the DVD-R. Connecting a new burner and having recognition problems might indicate a bad DVD-Rom. One bad drive can render the entire IDE inoperative. Try disconnecting the Rom drive, set the new burner jumper to Master, connect it to the end of the ide cable and see what happens. Keep in mind that you should use the Master/Slave jumpering with a 40 wire ide. You can use either Master/Slave or Cable Select for BOTH drives if using an 80 wire cable.

[saturninus]

I just the old first burner alone by itself. It seems like it is definitely worn out. It's having the hardest time even reading JPEG pictures.

The odd thing is this. When the DVD/CD-RW failed I had to turn to the DVD-R drive as my primary drive. It worked just fine. Then when I replaced the old DVD/CD-RW with an new same exact model the DVD-R has failed to get detected. It does not matter if it is isolated or not the PC refuses to acknowledge it.

I'm going to try my PC with the brand new DVD/CD-RW drive and report back on the results.

Thank you everyone for the feedback.

[saturninus]

I currently have the brand new DVD/CD-RW drive installed. It seems to work fine. I have the DVD-R drive installed and still it's not getting detected. I am suspecting the IDE cable cannot handle two drives at once. I'm going to get a new cable. If it doesn't work after that then I am stumped as how to fix this problem.

[Panama Red]

Trying a new cable is a good plan. Keep us posted.

[saturninus]

New cable doesn't help.

I'm out of answers. I mean, I suppose it is possible that my DVD-R drive failed after replacing my other drive. Yet, those chances seem really slim. Especially if I was using it as my primary drive for a while just fine.

I'm giving up for right now. I'm stumped and frustrated.

[Cricket]

Did you try the DVD-R drive in another computer? If it doesn't work there, it's broken.

:) Cricket