I have a problem with my system. Suddenly my floppy drive is not listed as present. Should be Drive "E" as I recall.

I have searched and searched . . . .

The drive is present, and when I put in a disk it seems to be playing, but no sound or video.

Any suggestions?

DVD drive?

"Floppy Drive".......I think your quartz watch has more processing power!

It's suffering the ravages of old age.

Yeah, a DVD drive.

My age and memory reverts back, sometimes, to when I was carrying a tool bag for IBM. Ya know, before dirt.

Hey I remember floppy drives. I think I may have one old tower that has a 3.5” drive in it in storage somewhere, but it hasn’t been powered up in years and I don’t remember what OS is on it. I remember programming back in the old days when there were still 5.25” drives. Fun and games...

Check that the data cable from the drive to the mainboard is secure at both ends. Might help to remove and snap back in at each connection. I assume you tried rebooting already.

This link may also be of help. I have seen more than a few times where the registry entries as described under method 5 have to be deleted assuming you are not using Windows 10.

https://support.microsoft.com/...ws-or-other-programs

Reseat the interface cable between the DVD and the motherboard at both ends.

Do this with the power off and while wearing your anti-static strap.

Power back up and see if the device is recognized.

(assuming that this is a desktop)

Have not had the system apart in any fashion in the 5 years or so since I bought it.

Would a "restore" help?

I have auto back up running every Sunday night.

i would go to device manager and see if it is recognized and see if you can update the drivers.

quote:

Originally posted by Elk Hunter:
Have not had the system apart in any fashion in the 5 years or so since I bought it.

Would a "restore" help?

I have auto back up running every Sunday night.

A restore might help if the issue is with corrupt registry or corrupt/missing drivers. If it is a hardware problem including cables a restore will not help.

By any chance have you a mapped network drive with the same letter?

Sometimes drives overlap each other and that's what you get when it happens.

As a rule, I remap the DVD drive as Z as soon as I set up the computer. This way, I'm sure it won't change names if I add other drives or map new ones from my network.

0-0

Have not changed a thing. Have not used the drive in months. Just wanted to check instructions I received on a DVD.

Been looking at getting another desktop unit. but reluctant because of all the "stuff" I have on this one. Maybe I will try reseating the cables in the morning when I am more awake and less ticked off.

Thanks to all for the advice.

It Ain't Got No Gas In it.

But seriously, someone has to be "that guy" and ask... you did try more than the one disk didn't you?

quote:

Originally posted by cparktd:
It Ain't Got No Gas In it.

But seriously, someone has to be "that guy" and ask... you did try more than the one disk didn't you?

Yes, I did.

Strange happenings here!!!!!!!!!!

I left the computer "on" last night, music disk in the drive.

Mrs. told me this morning that she was awakened last nite by LOUD music. Rather than wake me, she came down and just turned the volume down.

I had left a music disk in the drive.

This morning it is working fine. Drive works, swapped out disks, etc. Working for video, sound etc.

Ghosts? Evil spirits?

Not knocking it, but it is puzzling.

Edited to add: Did a check of the drive w/o a disk in it. It does not show up on the listing of I/O devices. Put a disk in it and it does.


Update from microslop?

Anyway, thanks for the tips and advice.

quote:

Update from microslop?

I just checked and it seems the current version of Windows 10 does NOT keep a CD/DVD drive mapped if there isn't a READABLE disk in the drive.

Back when I still smoked I found out that smoking would "coat" the lens in a CD player. Much to my dismay this nasty habit cost me a rather treasured DBX model 3BX CD player. It also cost me at least 3 DVD players. Normal symptom of the lens becoming obscured is a slowly increasing loss of the ability to read some disks and recordable disks were typically the first that would fail to be read.

Now, I'm not suggesting that smoking is your problem but if you have a kitchen near this computer vapors from cooking can have the same effect. As can a furnace filter that hasn't been replaced frequently enough or simply dust migrating into the house through open windows. Point is that your drive may be due for replacement and the good news is that if you have a SATA motherboard CD/DVD drives can be purchased for under 25 bucks. However you will need to check if you have the new style power plug that is typical to newer SATA drives. If not you'll need the adapter to go from the old 4 pin connector to the new style plug.

PS; I'm old enough to have done programming in Fortran and used paper punch cards to input the program.