CD Drive not being detected.

[nums]

Heya.

My CD Drive has been acting up for a month or so now.
Most of the time the CD Drive is not detected, on the rare occasion that it is, after the computer has been on for awhile it will "lose" it and will no longer appear under my computer.
Its a Lite-on iHas524

The event viewer reports
The following boot-start or system-start driver(s) failed to load:
cdrom

It no longer appears in the Device Manager.

Also at the windows loading screen while booting it will sometimes hang for a minute or two which from what I understand is usually driver related.

I have checked the cables and everything is connected fine.

Is it possible to reinstall CDrom drivers?
If so, how would I go about doing that and where can I find them? There doesn't appear to be model specific drivers.

 

[Britton30]

Try opening Device Manager and clicking the Scan for Hardware changes. Hopefully you can follow my diagram. If that doesn't work check your cables, power and data to the drive for looseness, broken wires etc. If you have another connector on your motherboard, try swapping it to another one.

Drivers are generic ones Windows has already installed. There may be a firmware upgrade available, there was for my iHAS424 when I bought it.

EDIT: I checked http://www.liteonit.com/global/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=298&Itemid=67# and there seems to be no firmware upgrade.

 

[nums]

Device manager didn't pick it up from scanning.

 

[Britton30]

Did you try the wire and cable angle? Is there anything in Device Manager with the yellow triangle or Unknown Device labels?

It could be the drive has went bad too. Although Windows doesn't see it, does the drawer open by the button press?

 

[patio]

If the drive is 3 + years old my guess is that it has gone South...

Brand new Dual-Layer DVD burners are about 35 Bucks shipped here in the US.

 

[BondClint]

Try checking your BIOS settings. Did you change any of your BIOS settings lately? Or installed a new device on your PC like Hard Disk or RAM ectcetera.? I suggest you check the power and data cable connecting the PC's motherboard with the drive. If that doesn't solve your problem try using a different cable or another motherboard channel.

EDIT: Drivers for CD/DVD or Hard disks aren't necessary as Windows detects them automatically. I never encountered a drive (Hard disk or DVD/CD driver) problem because of a missing driver in my experience. Replacing the cable (both data like SATA and power) or connecting the drive to another mainboard channel or checking the BIOS settings always fixed the issue. If it disappears after a few hours the PC is on try checking the cables and/or mainboard channel. Software like BIOS and drivers don't get "tired"/"exhausted" after some hours but hardware does!!