27 replies to this topic

[yourallthesame]

Lorcanz, I believe you have said it plain and simple, my friend. Rshaffer, I did a run through with my suspected friend, and apparently it IS my drive. He did not replace it. Lordy, lordy, looks like Microsoft's got some explaining to do, but I'll probably never hear it. Thanks for all the help, guys. You've been most helpful, though the problem not remedied. Oh well. I'll just have to bittorent my software, or buy an external hard drive.

[rshaffer61]

Vista SP2 wouldn't have anything to do with your system since you said you are running XP on the laptop. I would not be so quick to accept the Vista SP2 suggestion since you obviously are not using it.

Oh well. I'll just have to bittorent my software, or buy an external hard drive.

This is not only not advisable it could open the door to a whole mess of problems. We can also not support your with these softwares since it is against the TOU.

[appleoddity]

Yes, it is obvious that you are not using Vista, and the explanation is ridiculous. This is not a software issue. It is a hardware issue. I don't know why the problem started when your friend swapped out drives. I suggest you swap DVD drives again and see if HIS drive works. Then we can go from there.

[yourallthesame]

Yeah, we tried his and it didn't work either. Sorry about the bittorent part, that was being sarcastic out of my frustration. I'll just have to get an external drive for whatever. Yeah, I don't know what's going on with this laptop. The drive worked perfectly fine before it was taken out. When I plug it back in, it opens and closes, and I can even hear it scan the disc that I put in, but the drive itself doesn't show up in my BIOS, My Computer, nor the Device Manager. No options whatsoever. It's like the connection to the drive got fried when the swapped must have been made. It's really weird. I'm not too worried though, I don't do too much with the drive. It's just baffling and challenging the heck out of me to see that it's all of a sudden no longer working. I thank you guys for the continued support and drive not to just say, "Buddy, you're notgood!"

[appleoddity]

Try going into your BIOS and loading defaults. Maybe its a BIOS problem. A flash update for the laptop might help also. It could be a known issue for your laptop's BIOS. Not likely.

[yourallthesame]

Do you think it could have been possible that the driver for the dvd drive was lost when the hard drive was removed and re installed cuz I've tried to restore defaults in BIOS and nothing. We stuck in a dvd lens cleaner (just so I can say I tried everything possible) and it spun the cleaner. But it's still not visible on my computer anywhere. Do you also know where I can download the driver for the DVD drive? I can't find anything that resembles it on the stupid drivers section for Gateway.

[rshaffer61]

Optical drives do not use drivers anymore and haven't really since XP. I am more leaning toward the failure of your drive itself.

[yourallthesame]

Oh, that's some bad news, but good advice. LOL! Talk about oxymorons!

[rshaffer61]

You could contact the manufacturer of the laptop and see about purchasing a replacement drive or a newer model for your system. The other option is to purchase a external drive that would connect to your system via a USB connection.

[appleoddity]

Yeah, we tried his and it didn't work either.

Its not the drive.

Did you happen to try either of the last two things I suggested?

[rshaffer61]

Its not the drive.

Did you happen to try either of the last two things I suggested?

After rereading the posts I have to agree with appleaddity on this. Since you tried another known working drive and the issue still happens then try resetting the bios to default and see if that helps.

[yourallthesame]

Do you guys know how I can do a flash update of my computer? I didn't read appleoddity's reply thoroughly. But I did try to restore all defaults on BIOS and that did nothing, unfortunately.

[rshaffer61]

You would have to go to the manufacturer website that made the system and see if there is a bios update for it.