doesn't detect CDRW

[Jumby]

I changed my case a couple of weeks ago but was waiting for a new CDRW, ZIP, and floppy so I just used the ones I had till the new ones came in. The new drives got here and I installed them but the cdrw isn't being recognized. I didn't "remove" them from device mananger until I changed the CDRW and ZIP. I put the old (actually the same one, except beige) CDRW back in just to see if the new drive was defective, and now it's not being recognized either. I checked bios settings, changed cables, checked jumpers, but it isn't working. Any ideas. Thanks.

[Paleo Pete]

First check BIOS, make sure the IDE channel the CDRW is on is set to auto-detect. Sometimes when you remove a drive it will reset back to "none", and you have to reset auto-detect. Not common, but it happens.

If that gets no results, remove all new drives, and boot with only the hard drive. Remove floppy, zip and CDRW drives from Device Manager, preferably in Safe Mode.
Reboot, make sure everthing's OK, then shut down and add Floppy only. Boot and check it. If working, add CDRW, boot and check it. One thing at a time, and soon as one doesn't show up, you have a lot less troubleshooting to find out why.

Re-check jumpers, make sure the cables are correct, and make sure power connectors are plugged in securely. Don't install any software until all the hardware is installed and detected. The IDE ribbon cable should have two connectors closer together than the middle and third one. The two closer ones go to the drives, NOT the motherboard. (Get that backward and it will probably get an error message saying you have no 80 conductor cable.)

Also post what IDE positions each drive is in. Primary/Secondary IDE, Master/Slave. That might help us, and what version of Windows.

[Jumby]

Pete, thanks for the reply. When I turned on the computer this morning, the cdrw was recognized by XP. This was strange but one thing you said "Sometimes when you remove a drive it will reset back to "none", and you have to reset auto-detect." rang a bell. I thought I tried everything, and this morning I changed jumpers back to slave on second IDE. Maybe that's what did it. What's strange was that I thought everything was ok with the "new cased" computer, then last night when I was going to put IE 6 on a CD to install on my wifes laptop, there was no CDRW. Well, whatever I did, or the computer did, it works now. Shoot Pete, you're so good maybe you did it! Thanks for getting back.

[Paleo Pete]

It was probably the jumper, that's one of the most commonly overlooked items when swapping/replacing drives. I constantly have to double check them because I can't remember if I already did it.

Shoot Pete, you're so good maybe you did it!

All I did was jog your memory a bit...