System says cd drive not installed

[wererat]

hi all...
im working on a system that just does not want to recognize the cd drive...
in bios, it said the drive is not installed, but it lights up like its checking the drive but the light just flashes 3 or 4 times then stops...
i dont know where to start....
i looked inside, the power cable is connected and the ide cable is connected, but that is all that is there...
there is no audio cable installed...
there is nothing wrong with the drive, i pulled it and installed it into my external enclosure and it worked fine...
its a dell...
it does not show up in the bios, or in the device manager...

help please..

 

[Ididmyc600]

Hi

not all BIOS's show a CD drive as an IDE device, some do....

The light flashes if power is connected and is not a sign that the computer recognises it.

Is the CD on its own IDE cable if so check the cable for any faults, swap it out for another and see if the fault persists,

If its on the same cable as the HD check the jumper settings on the unit and make sure the HD is set as master and the CD is set as slave.

Some HD's dont like having a slave device attached to them unless the jumpers are set correctly.

Regards

 

[CCT]

http://www.mikeshardware.com/howtos/howto_connect_ide_hd.html

 

[wererat]

thanks 600...

the bios in this system does see the cd drive as an ide... just says that its not present in the system...
ive checked the cable, and i think it was installed correctly, dont believe anything else was on it... will try the switching cables thing and see if that works...
thanks!!!!