My DVD Drive disappears!

For some unknown reason my DVD-ROM disappears from my system. I can find it in the BIOS but Windows XP SP2 will not see it. I suspect it may be a power supply issue. I used to lose a harddrive from time to time but after I put in a new MB (two months ago) and rearranged my power connections that problem went away. I'm not using any kind of RAID array.

I get the DVD-ROM drive back if I disconnect the power and SATA connectors to the DVD-ROM and then boot up the computer. I then shut the computer down, reconnect the SATA and power supply to the DVD ROM and it magically re-appears.

If it's not a PSU issue, maybe it's Windows XP.

Any thoughts please. Thanks in advance.

My system:

ASUS P5W DH Deluxe
Core 2 Duo at 6600
2 Gigs Corsair 533 (4200) RAM
Radeon X850
WD 250 Gig SATA
WD 120 Gig SATA
Lite-On DVD SATA
Plexor PX755 A DVD-RW SATA
Antec Neo Power 480
Lian-Li PC-60
4 case fans, two 80mm, one 120mm, one in 51/4 bay.

I had a DVD drive disappear once. Eloped with the modem. I think they're now somewhere in Mexico. :x

Anyway, it sounds more like a Windows issue, though I'm not sure. Since you have two hard drives, can you try putting a new install of Windows on one and see if the issue goes away?

I had the same problem, occasionally, with mine, till one day it was working OK and just went out, I heard it also shutting down. It was a bad contact of the power connector; just pushed it harder and it's OK now.

Had you just installed a burning software package (Nero, etc) or started it up when it dissapeared? I've seen registry entries created by these programs cause drives to dissapear in windows before. Deleting the right, added entry resolves the issue. I'd have to hunt down the info for you, but I don't even know if this is the case for you yet.

-dolynick

DVD issues are common. Really tough to determine what root of prob is. Try out my recs as I have your mobo. I think its that. Good luck.