Hi Tim,

The CD will spin and flash as it reads the ID off the disk. This proves it
has power, but this does not imply that the CPU is reading it since this
part is completely internal to the drive.

The part of your original post that makes me think the IDE cable or
interface is the BIOS reporting "not installed".

It could be that the BIOS has lost its configuration of the drives, or the
port has been disabled. You might look through the BIOS options looking for
something that enables/disables IDE ports.

Russ Poffenberger

-----Original Message-----
From: Personal Computer Hardware discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Tim Seaton
Sent: Wednesday, August 02, 2006 1:38 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] OS Crash


The computer does attempt to read from both CD Drives when a CD is placed in
them.  The light comes on, it begins to spin, and then reads for a few
moments, finally ending with the CD Drive powering down.  The “Strike F1 to
retry boot, F2 for setup utility” message never leaves the screen during
this time.  This is the reason I did not think it was the power supply or
the IDE interface.  In addition, the computer is only a little over a year
old.  However, I do not know all that much about the inner workings.
   
  Tim Seaton


 		
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