Can someone help me figure out an issue on Windows XP Media Center?

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

I'm having this crazy issue with my dvdrw drive (the only cdrom on this particular PC) keeps disappearing from the system. It's not in My Computer, not in disk management....nowhere. The drive opens and closes, but the system doesn't recognize that it's even there.

So...i've tried 2 other drives in this PC and the issue happens regardless of what drive it's running with so i know it's not the dvdrw drive. I've also tried the dvdrw drive in my other PC (the one i'm on now) and it works just fine and doesn't disappear.

I then got desperate and took a shot and changed the drive letter to be the last 'disk' in the list (changed it to X just for the hell of it) and it worked fine for about 2 weeks but now has vanished again.


I've searched the internet and posted this on a few XP forums and nobody can tell me jack crap. The PC is relatively new, but once i opened the case to fix it myself all warranty went void....not that i care much because i'll get it fixed one way or another...it's just annoying the crap out of me.

Some people are telling me it's a Media Center issue and that i should go back to XP Pro, but i'm not about to drop the coin on another version of that and all the copies out there can't get security updates...so i'm stuck.

Anyone got any ideas?

[PaulFiveOh]

Sounds like a Master/Slave IDE issue.

Is it SATA or IDE?

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

It's IDE, and it is set to Master and it's the only cdrom in the PC.

[one90gt]

Try booting the pc with the DVD drive w/ no jumpers on it, as long as the DVDRW is the only thing on the IDE chain. (Not Master or Slave)

[JonS]

Have you tried putting it on the secondary IDE cable as a master?

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

Try booting the pc with the DVD drive w/ no jumpers on it, as long as the DVDRW is the only thing on the IDE chain. (Not Master or Slave)


Have you tried putting it on the secondary IDE cable as a master?


I haven't tried either of these but i'll give them a shot.

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

Well guys neither of those worked....any other ideas?


Here's an added bit of info....if i switch the rom out with another one, the PC will see it and it will work....but it WILL disappear eventually (it's done it with 2 other drives). For example, if i just want to make it work, all i do is plug in a different drive, boot up and shut back down, then plug the original drive back in and taa daa it's there again. But, it eventually disappears anyways.

[mach_u]

Go to My Computer, right-click on the drive, go to properties, then click on the hardware tab. It should have the model of your DVD/RW drive listed in there (ie. LITE-ON DVDRW LH201A1P, etc.). Google the manufacturer (in this case LITE-ON) and check out their downloads page for any new firmware for the drive. Run that and see what it does. Secondly if your PC is relatively new it won't matter if they PC itself has a voided warranty(although I would still try and have it replaced) as 99% of the time you can go directly to the manufacturer to warranty the drive. Just my 2cents - hope it helps! :bigthumb

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

Go to My Computer, right-click on the drive, go to properties, then click on the hardware tab. It should have the model of your DVD/RW drive listed in there (ie. LITE-ON DVDRW LH201A1P, etc.). Google the manufacturer (in this case LITE-ON) and check out their downloads page for any new firmware for the drive. Run that and see what it does. Secondly if your PC is relatively new it won't matter if they PC itself has a voided warranty(although I would still try and have it replaced) as 99% of the time you can go directly to the manufacturer to warranty the drive. Just my 2cents - hope it helps! :bigthumb

Wow you were pretty close..lol, it's a LITE-ON but it's a different model. The problem is that when it disappears, it's even gone from "manage" but i guess i can swap around the drives until it shows up and try that. I'll go check into it....

[mach_u]

Wow you were pretty close..lol, it's a LITE-ON but it's a different model. The problem is that when it disappears, it's even gone from "manage" but i guess i can swap around the drives until it shows up and try that. I'll go check into it....
Check out: http://www.liteonit.com/global/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=75
I would try contacting lite-on first however and see if they will replace it for you. If you are having issues with other cd/dvd drives it may very well be an OS issue. I don't think there is anything wrong with media center though. I loaded it at home and work on XP MC PCs it all the time. It's basically XP Pro minus a couple networking features(the ability to join a server, etc.) and adding a couple of media management features. I think it may just be XP being XP. lol I had a similar situation recently on an Acer unit. The CD drive showed up but everytime you put a disc in it wouldn't register. I tried replacing the drive, nothing - ended up being a corrupt OS, I believe due to corrupt burning software, and I had to do a fresh load (a repair didn't even fix it....

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

Ok....i can't seem to find any firmware for this exact drive.


LITE-ON SHW-160P6S PGS1

The bold part being the part that doesn't match anything i've downloaded. I found one for just the 160P6S, but when i try to execute it, it pops up saying that no drive to match the firmware is found, and it lists the drives that are found which is where i got that extra part number.

:mad:

[mach_u]

Well if it's not showing up there I would suggest googling it. There are several third-party websites that offer firmware. As I said though, it may be a good idea to try contacting lite-on first however. Alternatively if there is still phone support available for the PC you might want to try there also. Chances are your manufacturer is not going to deny your warranty claim purely because the sticker has been broken. It's more of a deterrent than anything else.

[ewalt]

If it were my pc, I'd reinstall the OS.

It's not a problem with the drive. That hardly makes any sense. If the drive is fine in another pc, and other drives in the affected pc do the same thing, the only logical conclusion is the drive is fine, search elsewhere for the problem.

Your computer should have a sticker on it with your product key for media center. I'd be reinstalling. But that's up to you, as you're gonna have to find all the needed drivers to get everything working again. I'm just saying, why mess with a firmware upgrade, calling lite-on etc, when the drive is clearly fine.

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

Yeah i don't think it's physically the drive, just something in the OS or driver related. The only problem with reinstalling the OS is i don't have any disks....this is an OEM installation so all i have is the backup partition on the hard drive in case you need to do a full system recovery....which i have done and it didn't change anything.

A couple people have mentioned similar issues and blamed Media Center, saying that they went back to XP Pro and the issue was gone.


I've changed drives, cables, power plugs, jumper settings to every way it would run, tried to run it off the other plug on the same ribbon, i've tried pretty much everything.

Right now it's working but only because i swapped the drive out with another drive.....this is what triggers the drive to show back up. It's not unplugging that does it, it's a different drive altogether. When it happens i can unplug the drive and plug it back in all i want but it won't show back up unless it's a different drive that i plug in.

So once i got the OEM drive to show up again, i shut down and made it the master and hooked up another plain cdrom drive as slave on the same ribbon....i don't know why or how that would change anything, it's just something i haven't tried.


It seems like there's something happening to disrupt the drive's connection. If it's not OS related then maybe the power supply or something...but that doesn't make sense because it still opens and closes.

Maybe it's the MTB where the cable plugs in...maybe the board is just junk. I looked for hours last night for firmware for the drive and couldn't find crap. Today i'm gonna search for chipset drivers and any other drivers i can update.

[ewalt]

It's very likely it's just an OS problem. If not, then it could be a hardware problem but that would rest on the motherboard side as the drive is fine in other computers and other known good drives do the same thing in that pc.

You can easily download a copy of Windows Media center, you should have a product key on the side of the box. Use that product key and everything is still legit.

Edit: Is there just one hard drive? Can you plug it in as slave on that cable to see if the problem still exist? That would help you determine if it's hardware or OS that's the problem. If the hard drive works fine consistently and you plug the cdrom into the same cable and the problem still exist it's clearly an OS issue. Just watch that hard drive, some drives have a jumper for "single drive" and a jumper for "master with multiple drives", or something to that effect.

[IWRBB]

FYI, I have MCE and I've swapped and added CD drives to it many times without any issues. I used them to rip about 200 CDs to MP3s. My installation is pretty barebones though, I only installed what's neeed on that box since it's also my Winproxy machine and handles all the internet traffic for my computers behind it.

As much as it sucks to do, I'd try the MS "knowledge base" and see if you can find your issue. If it's a driver thing, you can usually just reinstall that part only.

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

Yeah just one drive and it's SATAII so that might not work.

I didn't think about the copy thing and still use my CD key...i'll have to see if i can get a copy.

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

FYI, I have MCE and I've swapped and added CD drives to it many times without any issues. I used them to rip about 200 CDs to MP3s. My installation is pretty barebones though, I only installed what's neeed on that box since it's also my Winproxy machine and handles all the internet traffic for my computers behind it.

As much as it sucks to do, I'd try the MS "knowledge base" and see if you can find your issue. If it's a driver thing, you can usually just reinstall that part only.


When the drive is showing up, it lists as working properly and won't update any drivers because they're working fine.

[ewalt]

You could always try the reinstall driver option, but I don't think I've ever actually seen that work.

What brand and model is this pc?


When the drive is showing up, it lists as working properly and won't update any drivers because they're working fine.

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

It's a Gateway GM5266E. Normally i'd never buy an OEM computer for reasons just like this, but i got a killer price on this one and couldn't pass it up. As far as i know it's totally OEM stock inside and out too (in fact i broke the seal on the case so it should be).

I just keep thinking about the error that shows up in the system events log when the drive disappears....the part about plug and play error. I dunno i guess you'll get that error if anything is unplugged.

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

Ok guys since you've been pretty quick with the replies, do any of you have any experience with XP 64bit? I might be able to get a legit copy for free, so have they taken care of the support issues yet? Do most programs work right on it now?

[ewalt]

Man, I dunno with xp 64bit. I'm pretty sure it will run 32bit programs still. Of course you have a 64bit processor yes?

As far as 64bit programs, I really don't think there are any out there that take advantage of that, so I dunno if it would be worth it.

I forgot why I even asked you for the computer make/model. I was going to look something up, but gatways website apparently blows...

Oh, I remember now, after f'ing with gateways sorry site. I was going to look to see if they had like a system driver for your pc. If they do, I'd try installing that. Like chipset drivers or something. I can't get it to work though, it's being obnoxiously slow.

[noslo50stang]

Just a gues here

what mode is teh IDE drive set too in windows XP:

PIO. etc.

also is the dma channel on or off?

before you flash teh drive firmware. look and see if there's an updated drive for your IDE controller ( if ot's on baord try the motherbaord manufactures site)

I've also seen issue with ram cause a IDE channel to drop out here and there as well. if you can pull a chip and try it

[BLWN]

Does the BIOS recognize the drive when windows doesn't?

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

Does the BIOS recognize the drive when windows doesn't?

No...it comes up as saying no optical device present.

[mach_u]

64-bit is nice, super fast but it is a pain in the ass to get driver's for! I ran it for awhile on my PC because we had 10 copies available to us through our MS partner program but ended up removing it and going back to XP Media Center. If you already have the OEM sticker however I would contact your manufacturer and see if they can't ship you out a re-installation CD? I the bios isn't recognizing it you may infact have something goofy with that channel. I think I read you correctly when you said it was a SATA drive? Either way, try a different cable and a different channel. Also if it is a SATA drive, try plugging in an IDE drive and see if that stays. You may also want to get ahold of Gateway and see if they offer a bios update for your motherboard. Just a couple more suggestions...