cdrom not found by bios R32

Message

dhughens · #1 Post by **dhughens** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 10:38 am

I have both an A31 and an R32 which have been trouble free. The R32 recently cannot see the cd drive in XP. After doing the basic device manager work, i.e. looking for drive (not there), removing IDE controllers and letting XP refind them on reboot (no change), swapping cd drive with unit from A31 (same problem) and checking to see if R32's drive worked in A31 (it does), I started web search for disappearing cd drive issues. After consuming some 4-6 hours including this forum I had a few directions to go. This is what I have done besides what I have mentioned.

- Did a complete "recovery" from embedded IBM software which ran with no problems and put the unit back to original - still no drive.
- Ran BIOS diagnostics (PC Doctor) and found that the cd drive is not recognized. (CDROM driver not loaded)
- Decided to update BIOS and reflashed to newest update (from 2.01a to 2.15) - still no drive recognized.
- Ran the Interactive Tests and PC Doctor could not detect cd drive. Message was: "No MSCDEX or CDrom device driver not loaded.

I thought that the BIOS has to recognize the drive before any software loaded on the hard drive is implemented. If the BIOS isn't recognizing a functional drive can anyone tell me what I may have overlooked to fix this issue. Thanks for any input. dan...

BTW, why does the bios not allow an IDE detect to see what drives are connected? dan...

storage_man · #2 Post by **storage_man** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 1:30 pm

dhughens

Sounds like a broken CD Drive period. If its broke and non responsive to any bios requests, bios will not see it. To remove the possiblilty of it being a connector problem, I would try another device in the ultra bay just for verification.

Storage_man

dhughens · #3 Post by **dhughens** » Fri Sep 23, 2005 1:58 pm

Thanks storage_man, I already did that as mentioned in the post but you bring up a good point that I forgot to mention.
I have also tried the floppy drive from the A31 in the bay to check the bay socket and it worked fine. BTW, when a cd is placed in the drive, the light comes on and it spools up. Of course nothing happens as the drive is not recognized by the machine.

Thanks again for the response, dan...

dhughens · #4 Post by **dhughens** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 10:47 am

Anybody??? I have exhausted everything I can think of or find on the net. I haven't pulled the case off to check ribbon cables, etc. Kind of intimidated to open it up. dan...

slagmi · #5 Post by **slagmi** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 12:08 pm

Have you loaded the BIOS defaults?
Are you able to Boot from CD, even after removing the hard disk?

dhughens · #6 Post by **dhughens** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 12:46 pm

"slagmi" Thanks for the suggestion. I tried that and got no positive results. The interesting thing is that the bios doesn't give a drive detect choice. Neither thinkpad does. What happens when you want to change hard drives? Is everything just automatic and you are not allowed to "USER DEFINE" if you wanted to??

As a recap, the cdrom drive is not seen in the THINKPAD DIAGNOSTICS before windows even loads. However, I have two cd drives and two thinkpads and everything works great in the 2nd laptop (read original post). The kicker is that the floppy WORKS in the r32 which makes me think the buss connector must be alright. dan...

slagmi · #7 Post by **slagmi** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 2:52 pm

Well, it sounds like it's a problem with the planar or at least the physical connector inside the laptop- you've pretty much proven that by process of elimination- one bad pin or solder joint is all it takes...

dhughens · #8 Post by **dhughens** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 1:10 am

slagmi: Thanks for the insight, sigh, I will open up the case. I was hoping for some magic or something. Thanks for everyone's input. dan...

3EK · #9 Post by **3EK** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 4:25 pm

Hi dhughens,

I've been suffering from the same absolutely problem for months until I realized what was going on. My cd-rom drive was suddenly disappearing in the mid of work and I could not see it in my computer. It was horrible! You reboot the laptop and you cannot find cd-rom after the system is up.. You go to system -> hardware -> scan for hw changes.. and xp cannot locate cd/dvd-rom device at all. I tried pulling out the whole cd-rom device and inserting it back again. It helped for some time, but after 20 (50?) attempts it stopped helping also. Moreover, I took my friend's (R41) newer (2004) cd-rom to check - the laptop also refused to recognize it. I inserted my cd-rom to his R41 - it worked perfectly. The confusing moment was: you hear spinning but you don't see the device listed in the system!

The issue is in how ibm built the ultra bay in R32. For example, in R41 your cd-rom device has a small screw that holds it. Also the construction of R41 ultra bay differs from R32 despite that both cd-rom devices are compatible (same).

In your R32 you can easily take out your cd/dvd-rom device by releasing the clip and pulling the device out. This is not good because after many times doing this your cd-rom simply loses the touch with the connector (while spinning or when you open/close the tray) and the system doesn't recognize it. Basically this is what causes the problem. Now, you can change the things back!

Yesterday, after few months of facing the problem (while viewing dvd movie in that happy moment of working dvd drive, because of cd-rom spinning, system lost the contact with device and media player hung up not knowing how to handle this error

), I finally disassembled my R32 and pulled out the mother board. You will have to disassemble your laptop totally to get access to that [censored] connector responsible for cd-rom. You will also notice that the ultra bay itself is spacious enough to let the device float in it. I mean, even nano movement is enough for disconnect.

So what I have done was the following. I got this knife (small one with sliding blade, ya know...) and slightly bent all (!) pins of the motherboard connector to their centre (those responsible for connection with cd-rom device, not board), got all assembled back and now (for the second day at least) everything works as it supposed to. Remeber, the problem of your cd-rom is hidden inside the laptop - it is not matter of bios recognition or whatsoever. It's deeper, but now you know how to solve it. Good luck!

mzmo · #10 Post by **mzmo** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 9:48 am

I have a similar problem with the combo drive in my R32.

The symptoms:
1. A few months ago in XP's Event Viewer I noticed atapi errors and PlugPlayManager errors regarding the drive disappearing, and wondered what they meant.
2. Also a few months ago my R32 began to have a serious delay on startup - it would sit there at the boot screen and do nothing for five minutes.
3. Last month I noticed that my drive wasn't working at all in XP, and I started to investigate.

Here's what I found:
1. if I ejected the drive my computer booted with no delay
2. an Ultrabay 2000 combo drive borrowed from a friend works in my Ultrabay.

So in summary my problem seems slightly different from the two other writers so far, in that another very similar drive works with no problem.

I haven't yet been able to find someone who has an Ultrabay Plus drive slot so that I can test my drive to see if it alone is the problem.

If I were to disassemble the combo drive, what problems might I look for?

MobileGuru · #11 Post by **MobileGuru** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 10:43 am

dhughens wrote:I have both an A31 and an R32 which have been trouble free. The R32 recently cannot see the cd drive in XP. After doing the basic device manager work, i.e. looking for drive (not there), removing IDE controllers and letting XP refind them on reboot (no change), swapping cd drive with unit from A31 (same problem) and checking to see if R32's drive worked in A31 (it does), I started web search for disappearing cd drive issues. After consuming some 4-6 hours including this forum I had a few directions to go. This is what I have done besides what I have mentioned.

System board is defective.

N.

janozh · #12 Post by **janozh** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 9:14 pm

i have the same problem, i take mi chances and open my tp, move the conections in the mother board with the lockpick, close it and works fine.
the system board its ok, it cost me no more than 4 hours to do it rigth. thanks for your advice.

thanks 3ek!

pliu18 · #13 Post by **pliu18** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 1:34 am

hi guys,

i have exactly the same problem. i have tried two working cd and dvd roms drives in my r32. neither does the bios or windows will recognize the drives. i really need to get the optical drive working to reinstall my windows (my factor system restore has been deleted already). i will give it a go with opening the laptop up and try to fix the connector.

thanks.

martinsj · #14 Post by **martinsj** » Wed May 03, 2006 11:05 am

Hello,

Same problem.

Has anyone managed to completely solve it by bending the connector pins?

/Martin

janozh · #15 Post by **janozh** » Fri May 19, 2006 11:52 am

janozh wrote:i have the same problem, i take mi chances and open my tp, move the conections in the mother board with the lockpick, close it and works fine.
the system board its ok, it cost me no more than 4 hours to do it rigth. thanks for your advice.
thanks 3ek!

UPDATE:

it only works for another three months, and the problem goes on...system board?, in the post messages, appears and in wxp,gone... why? i dont understand, so i see no option other than buy a new mb.

madmaven · #16 Post by **madmaven** » Thu May 25, 2006 5:06 pm

Im just a newbe here but when I had that problem I removed the upper and lower filters in the registry. My problem was caused by burner software. I did have an error code 32, this fix applies to error codes 31, 32,19,39... www.microsoft.com/kb/314060/EN-US/
CD rom access is missing and messages cite error code etc.....

Probably wont help since yours is off and on again. but if you had changed software, burner software, it might help to read up on this one.

timjwild · #17 Post by **timjwild** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 7:54 am

Hi,

I also have this problem, as suggested in this thread I dismantled my TP and attempted to bend all of the connector pins inwards with a sewing needle. Some 30+ mins later, having reassembled the PC I found that I have the same problem. How far do you have to bend the pins? I may have been too gentle/worried about breaking the thing altogether. I have been quoted the obscene amount of £375 ($690) for a replacement system board which I won't be buying.

Is there such a thing as an external caddy (possible serial or USB connection) which accepts an ultrabay device that I could try?

Thanks

gadams · #18 Post by **gadams** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 4:25 am

I also had this problem - but what I figured was that the edge connector on the drive was not making contact in the socket in the thinkpad. By inspection, the socket was a little out of shape, with lots of tiny spring contacts supposed to make contact with the edge connector. Horrible design. When the drive is pushed in, the plastic shroud around the edge connector on the drive helps support the socket. My theory is that by making the shroud to socket a tighter fit, you can make the shroud squeeze more on the socket, which then makes better contact with the edge connector. It worked on my R32 and its easy. Take the drive out, wrap a piece of insulation tape over the edge of the plastic shroud on either side of the connector. The single thickness of tape on the insides is enough to tighthen up the connection. No guarantees, but it is less risky than pulling the whole thing to bits, so worth a try.
Cheers, Geoff

petyanc · #19 Post by **petyanc** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 12:18 pm

Hi, I've been having the same problem and it does feel to me that this is a bad contact issue ... the electric tape trick is a nice one but didn't help ..is it possible that the contact is poor because the pin surfaces on the board socket went bad ? some cleaning liquid has to be applied ? anybody with experience ?..

Peter

Sebastianh06 · #20 Post by **Sebastianh06** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 3:53 pm

following some of the suggestions here and at

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... ight=drive

now it doesnt work anymore at all, not even during boot for example using linux live cds...

any idea? i dont have the money to buy a new thinkpad because of this sh*** and i am outside warranty....

someone here with good advice?

cdrom not found by bios R32

cdrom not found by bios R32

Re: cdrom not found by bios R32

cdrom not recognized by bios.

me too!!

Re: cdrom not recognized by bios.

cdgone in bios

Same problem

same here ..

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