R50p CD/DVD drive not detected

[reyelts]

My R50p stopped recognizing the fact that there's a CD/DVD drive in the Ultrabay. It doesn't show up in My Computer or in Device Manager.

The Ultrabay itself works... I swapped the drive for a battery, and it finds/uses the battery. If I swap back, it's as though I pulled the battery and didn't replace it with anything. The green light next to the bay is on (not blinking), so the bay itself knows it isn't empty. But, the drive itself won't open while in the bay.

This is after doing a series of upgrades... upgraded ThinkVantage System Update to version 3xx, and then installed all available updates via that utility... including a BIOS update. Windows recently did an update of its own, and crapped out on Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 Service Pack 1 (KB929300) with error code 0x643. I tried reinstalling it manually, but no joy. I have no idea whether that problem is related.

Any ideas?

[ajkula66]

Welcome to the forum!

You might be looking at a couple of different options here...

a) Dead media drive...given that it's R50p that we're discussing here, it wouldn't surprise me at all.

b) Software quirk...

To determine which one it is, try downloading/borrowing a copy of a "live" Linux CD and booting from it...

If the machine boots Linux, you have a software issue. Should it fail to do so, you'll be looking for a replacement drive...

Hope this helps.

[madkat]

does it show in bios?
do you have a bootable winxp (or other win) cd? - if yes - and in the bios you "see" the drive - set the boot order with it above the hdd and see if it tries to boot from it...
if it doesnt (or not even apear in bios) - its a hardware issue
if it does is software...

good luck

[reyelts]

Thanks guys, I do have something called "ATAPI CD0" that shows up in the BIOS. I don't know if that corresponds to this particular drive or not. I only have one, so I would assume so.

I tried booting with an Ultimate Boot CD image (www.ultimatebootcd.com). The same image boots fine on the T60p laptop I have for work, but no joy on the problem personal R50p. That's not surprising, since the only way I can open the drive is to use the paperclip slot.

I finally realized the drive from my T60p fits in the R50p (but not the other way around... the T60p bay is thinner). The T60p drive works in the R50p, so it's a hardware issue. So, I just have to decide if I want to get another one for the T60p (so I can swap if needed) or one that's specific to the thicker R50p slot.

[madkat]

you cannot open it from the blue button?
deffinetly hardware issue then...