Cd roms identified but not working

[spkenny]

I've run into a customer of mine, who had their system taken to best buy's daunting ***** squad. The problem was simply he needed a wipe and reload done as his windows was seriously corrupt. The request for his information (specifically excel documents) to be backed up was noted, and the system went in. Much to this gentlemans surprise however, the system was returned with no information backed up, and the cd-rom and dvd r/rw not reading any discs. I immediately checked the device manager to see if the roms were at least being identified and recognized. They were, but with exclamations next to them advising a problem. Upon examining the two cd roms internally, I discovered one was set for cable select, and the other for slave. I then set the dvd rom for master, and the regular cd rom for slave. After restarting the machine, I expected that should have been a simple fix. However upon restarting the machine, there still are exclamations next to the drives under device manager. I am looking for any suggestions as to why this might be happening, as I am going back in the morning to re-visit this customer. I have 2 thoughts. 1: The ribbon cable simply needs to be replaced. or 2: Windows is corrupt in some manner. What do you think?

 

[raybay]

No easy fix. Just replace it.. that is the least expensive way. The exclamations are an indication that the drive has failed... either from a burned out laser, or a failed chip, or a failed drive belt. Optical drives are the most common failure item on a computer. The more it is used, the earlier it fails. Most have a 90-day warranty... others have a one year warranty... but they all fail.
Replacement is cheap and easy.

 

[spkenny]

That much I knew, but BOTH cd roms at the same time? What is the likelyhood of that happening, unless the best buy guys switched out his hardware which could explain why neither rom was set for master. I've heard all kinds of unfortunate things happening with the geek squad, and frankly I don't trust them. Along with the spare ribbon cable, I will be taking a working cd rom of my own that I use for testing purposes. I was just getting some input on what else to look for.

 

[raybay]

Check your jumpers on the optical drives. Set one as master and the other as slave for second.
Check your EIDE cable. They are built very cheaply, and as they age and become stiff, they pull out of their plug.
Test one optical drive at a time. If each works by itself, the problem is in the jumpers or the cable, or the BIOS.

 

[spkenny]

okay, anyone other than raybay with possible scenarios? No offense ray, but I'm really not that much of an ***** not to have checked what you suggested in the last post. And behold! If you actually read everything I described, you will find I've already done everything you said anyway. Now, onto the update on my situation. I've tested 2 working optical drives with the same results. Next I plan on loading windows onto an empty spare 10 gig hard drive, and reinstall everything fresh on this customers system. The reason for this is that I believe it is a windows error of some kind, and if the optical drives then work after the fresh install, my work will be done. Any other thoughts?