can't find cd

[fjs08]

Hi,
My son has a t41p. It crashed. It's going back to IBM in a box. So I gave him my t40p that WAS working perfectly. He needs it for college. I moved a bunch of my files off, and erased programs via add/remove software. He gets it back to college and e-mails me that he can't find the cd anywhere. It's not in My Computer. He said he couldn't load his print drivers, but I'm not sure he even has a cd for that. This morning I'm going to have him put a music cd in to see if it plays.

Could I have inadvertently erased the cd???? If so, how can I get it back??? I was thinking of having him go to add/remove hardware to see what is there that may need installing?? At this point, I’m lost. I haven’t talked to him. Just found e-mails this morning.

Any thoughts would be DEEPLY appreciated.
MANY thanks in advance. After the problems with my daughters t41 (hard drive crash), my son's problem (looks like a mother board) and now this, I'm pretty much done with computers!!!!

Frank

[fjs08]

As an addendum, I spoke with my son. He inserts cd's and they aren't found. There is no cd under My Computer. We went into Control Panel/System/Hardware, and the device is there,but there is a yellow caution sign with a black exclamation mark in the middle. He right clicked on the device and tried to update the drivers, but it gave a message that said he can't update the drivers because no hardware (CD) is found.

Frank

[Thinker]

As an addendum, I spoke with my son. He inserts cd's and they aren't found. There is no cd under My Computer. We went into Control Panel/System/Hardware, and the device is there,but there is a yellow caution sign with a black exclamation mark in the middle. He right clicked on the device and tried to update the drivers, but it gave a message that said he can't update the drivers because no hardware (CD) is found.

Frank

Frank,

Sorry to hear about your predicament. I wouldn't worry too much though, it's probably something that can be fixed. I have no experience with the T series (I only have an X31 which doesn't have a builtin optical drive), but my advice would be:
1. Tell your son to go to the Control Panel/Device Manager. Then locate the CD entry, right click, and disable it. Then try to enable it again. I don't think that it should be necessary to Add/Remove Hardware, because it should be detected automatically I think.

2. If that doesn't work, I think the T40p drive should be removable (Ultrabay or something like that). My guess is that maybe it is not seated correctly or something. So try removing it and plugging it again. I don't know if you can do this while the computer is on (I think this bay is hot-swappable, but not having any T series computer I don't know for sure). If you want to be safe, just turn off the computer while you remove and reinstall the drive. Maybe someone with a T40p computer would be of more help and will post in the forum.

3. Maybe the motherboard is fine but the drive died. If 1. and 2. don't work, and if your T40p is under warranty, just give IBM a call and have them send you a replacement.

I hope you can make things work and the frustration ends soon.

Regards,

Ruben

[fjs08]

Thanks for the note. Noah called IBM and they played with it for an hour. Not sure exactly what they did, but I sent along a copy of your thoughts to him in case they didn't do that.

They determined that it is a bad cd and IBM is sending out a new one. It is under warranty so that helps.

Frank

[Thinker]

Ok, that sounds good. IBM are pretty good about sending replacements, so it should be there soon.