Steve, what os are you using ?  I had the same problem on my machine and
it turned out to be my windows ME. Just a thought I don't know to much
but it might not be hardware.
Jeff Greene

Steve Face wrote:

> I am not sure if this is a hardware or software problem. I have a PC with
> an Intel Pentium II 400 MHz CPU, DFI PA61 MB, 128 MB RAM. There is a
> CD ROM
> drive on the secondary IDE controller.
> The PC was running fine until all of a sudden, after booting up, the CD
> drive was not there. I checked the cables and made sure everything was
> seated. Could not get the drive to come back. Finally, I took out a
> network
> control card and the drive came back. I kept the network card out
> since it
> wasn't really necessary. Then, days later, the drive disappeared again. I
> replaced the drive with a new Creative 48x from another PC.(BTW: the
> old CD
> drive works fine in another PC). It still didn't show. I took out an ISA
> Soundblaster card and the drive appeared. Put the sound card back and all
> was fine. Later, it disappeared again. I replaced the ISA sound card
> with a
> PCI sound card. The CD drive was back. All along I have suspected a
> problem
> with the MB, perhaps with the ISA bridge. Then, the CD drive disappears
> and, on a whim, I checked the C: drive and removed 20 MB of files. The
> drive appears on reboot.
> I am in the process of changing the MB, but still wonder if the problem
> could be the hard drive. Anyone have ideas?
>
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