CD/dvd drive not found

Dell Dimension B110, running XP, SP3
CD/dvd not working and computer cannot find the drive - BUT - only if
computer is booted up with the broadband internet cable attached and it takes
forever to boot up, probably because the computer is trying to find the
drive. Once the computer is fully booted up (without the CD/dvd drive
function) the internet connection works fine.

However, if computer is booted up without the internet cable attached, it
boots up quickly and everything works fine - including the CD/dvd drive.

So - we can either have the CD/dvd RW drive OR the Internet connection, but
not both.

Don't know if this has anything to do with it, but this is my son's computer
and he had not opened up the case and blew the dust out since he bought it,
so when I opened it up, I found a "blanket" of dust over the air intake and
dust balls the size of golf balls rolling around inside the case.

Magsmom wrote:
Dell Dimension B110, running XP, SP3
CD/dvd not working and computer cannot find the drive - BUT - only if
computer is booted up with the broadband internet cable attached and it takes
forever to boot up, probably because the computer is trying to find the
drive. Once the computer is fully booted up (without the CD/dvd drive
function) the internet connection works fine.

However, if computer is booted up without the internet cable attached, it
boots up quickly and everything works fine - including the CD/dvd drive.

So - we can either have the CD/dvd RW drive OR the Internet connection, but
not both.

Don't know if this has anything to do with it, but this is my son's computer
and he had not opened up the case and blew the dust out since he bought it,
so when I opened it up, I found a "blanket" of dust over the air intake and
dust balls the size of golf balls rolling around inside the case.

For the network, check the line on the following web page
called "On w/ PXE". PXE is network booting capability, and for a home
computer that typically would not be used (it is to allow
booting a computer from a server somewhere on the network).
The BIOS default for the network interface cotnroller is "On",
so someone would have had to modify it, to enable PXE. It could
be the computer is attempting to use PXE to boot the computer,
and in the process, is sending packets out via the broadband connection.
When the network cable is disconnected, the BIOS can sense there
is no connection, so it stops trying on that interface. That
is all I can suggest for your behavior with respect to the
network cable.

http://support.dell.com/support/edoc....htm#wp1054626

For the CDROM, the drive could be a ribbon cable type, and sharing a cable with
a second hard drive or optical drive. Sometimes, one drive can upset another
drive on the cable. The Dell may have the drives all jumpered "cable select"
or CS. That is so they don't have to be individually jumpered "master" or
"slave" when sharing a cable.

Test the CDROM by itself on the ribbon cable. Use the end connector, like this.
You can leave it jumpered "CS" as Dell shipped it.

Mobo_end --------------X------X
| |
CDROM

If it still isn't working, check the power is plugged firmly into the
CDROM drive. It could also be a problem with the ribbon cable itself,
although that would be more likely if the owner of the machine
had been playing with it, tugged on it, and so on. So knowing
what's been done inside the machine recently, may suggest whether
there is a reason to try swapping it out.

The thing is, as far as I know, optical drives should respond, even if
the drive mechanism itself is damaged. I don't think they cease to respond
to the OS, if there are minor issues. It is only when media is placed
in the tray, and the drive tries to detect it, that you discover
the real health of the optical drive. So I don't see how the drive
can withhold service, unless somehow it thinks media is present,
and is actively pretending to be doing reads on it.

A hard drive is different. Any little glitch that affects the
ability of the drive to finish its self test or startup
procedures (reading stuff from below sector 0), results in
the drive refusing to respond to the host. A hard drive is
more likely to hold the host hostage, and is more consistent
with your description. The optical drive, on the other hand,
should play nice, until you put a disc in the tray.

When ribbon cable devices share a cable, it is possible for
the controller board on the drive to fail, and hold up the
shared bus on the cable. And that is the reason for testing
drives individually, to see if the symptoms change. The problem
might only show when two drives are sharing the cable.

Paul

Magsmom wrote:
Dell Dimension B110, running XP, SP3
CD/dvd not working and computer cannot find the drive - BUT - only if
computer is booted up with the broadband internet cable attached and it takes
forever to boot up, probably because the computer is trying to find the
drive. Once the computer is fully booted up (without the CD/dvd drive
function) the internet connection works fine.

However, if computer is booted up without the internet cable attached, it
boots up quickly and everything works fine - including the CD/dvd drive.

So - we can either have the CD/dvd RW drive OR the Internet connection, but
not both.

Don't know if this has anything to do with it, but this is my son's computer
and he had not opened up the case and blew the dust out since he bought it,
so when I opened it up, I found a "blanket" of dust over the air intake and
dust balls the size of golf balls rolling around inside the case.

For the network, check the line on the following web page
called "On w/ PXE". PXE is network booting capability, and for a home
computer that typically would not be used (it is to allow
booting a computer from a server somewhere on the network).
The BIOS default for the network interface cotnroller is "On",
so someone would have had to modify it, to enable PXE. It could
be the computer is attempting to use PXE to boot the computer,
and in the process, is sending packets out via the broadband connection.
When the network cable is disconnected, the BIOS can sense there
is no connection, so it stops trying on that interface. That
is all I can suggest for your behavior with respect to the
network cable.

http://support.dell.com/support/edoc....htm#wp1054626

For the CDROM, the drive could be a ribbon cable type, and sharing a cable with
a second hard drive or optical drive. Sometimes, one drive can upset another
drive on the cable. The Dell may have the drives all jumpered "cable select"
or CS. That is so they don't have to be individually jumpered "master" or
"slave" when sharing a cable.

Test the CDROM by itself on the ribbon cable. Use the end connector, like this.
You can leave it jumpered "CS" as Dell shipped it.

Mobo_end --------------X------X
| |
CDROM

If it still isn't working, check the power is plugged firmly into the
CDROM drive. It could also be a problem with the ribbon cable itself,
although that would be more likely if the owner of the machine
had been playing with it, tugged on it, and so on. So knowing
what's been done inside the machine recently, may suggest whether
there is a reason to try swapping it out.

The thing is, as far as I know, optical drives should respond, even if
the drive mechanism itself is damaged. I don't think they cease to respond
to the OS, if there are minor issues. It is only when media is placed
in the tray, and the drive tries to detect it, that you discover
the real health of the optical drive. So I don't see how the drive
can withhold service, unless somehow it thinks media is present,
and is actively pretending to be doing reads on it.

A hard drive is different. Any little glitch that affects the
ability of the drive to finish its self test or startup
procedures (reading stuff from below sector 0), results in
the drive refusing to respond to the host. A hard drive is
more likely to hold the host hostage, and is more consistent
with your description. The optical drive, on the other hand,
should play nice, until you put a disc in the tray.

When ribbon cable devices share a cable, it is possible for
the controller board on the drive to fail, and hold up the
shared bus on the cable. And that is the reason for testing
drives individually, to see if the symptoms change. The problem
might only show when two drives are sharing the cable.

Paul

I'm afraid I got in a hurry and forgot to add this piece of information:
When I attempt to boot up with the internet connection in place, it brings
up the bios screen with this message: "Secondary drive 0 not found. Strike
F1 key to continue. Strike F2 to run the set up utility. I selected the F1
option. I did not feel qualified to run the Set up Utility. Maybe that's
the problem.


"Paul" wrote:

Magsmom wrote:
Dell Dimension B110, running XP, SP3
CD/dvd not working and computer cannot find the drive - BUT - only if
computer is booted up with the broadband internet cable attached and it takes
forever to boot up, probably because the computer is trying to find the
drive. Once the computer is fully booted up (without the CD/dvd drive
function) the internet connection works fine.

However, if computer is booted up without the internet cable attached, it
boots up quickly and everything works fine - including the CD/dvd drive.

So - we can either have the CD/dvd RW drive OR the Internet connection, but
not both.

Don't know if this has anything to do with it, but this is my son's computer
and he had not opened up the case and blew the dust out since he bought it,
so when I opened it up, I found a "blanket" of dust over the air intake and
dust balls the size of golf balls rolling around inside the case.

For the network, check the line on the following web page
called "On w/ PXE". PXE is network booting capability, and for a home
computer that typically would not be used (it is to allow
booting a computer from a server somewhere on the network).
The BIOS default for the network interface cotnroller is "On",
so someone would have had to modify it, to enable PXE. It could
be the computer is attempting to use PXE to boot the computer,
and in the process, is sending packets out via the broadband connection.
When the network cable is disconnected, the BIOS can sense there
is no connection, so it stops trying on that interface. That
is all I can suggest for your behavior with respect to the
network cable.

http://support.dell.com/support/edoc....htm#wp1054626

For the CDROM, the drive could be a ribbon cable type, and sharing a cable with
a second hard drive or optical drive. Sometimes, one drive can upset another
drive on the cable. The Dell may have the drives all jumpered "cable select"
or CS. That is so they don't have to be individually jumpered "master" or
"slave" when sharing a cable.

Test the CDROM by itself on the ribbon cable. Use the end connector, like this.
You can leave it jumpered "CS" as Dell shipped it.

Mobo_end --------------X------X
| |
CDROM

If it still isn't working, check the power is plugged firmly into the
CDROM drive. It could also be a problem with the ribbon cable itself,
although that would be more likely if the owner of the machine
had been playing with it, tugged on it, and so on. So knowing
what's been done inside the machine recently, may suggest whether
there is a reason to try swapping it out.

The thing is, as far as I know, optical drives should respond, even if
the drive mechanism itself is damaged. I don't think they cease to respond
to the OS, if there are minor issues. It is only when media is placed
in the tray, and the drive tries to detect it, that you discover
the real health of the optical drive. So I don't see how the drive
can withhold service, unless somehow it thinks media is present,
and is actively pretending to be doing reads on it.

A hard drive is different. Any little glitch that affects the
ability of the drive to finish its self test or startup
procedures (reading stuff from below sector 0), results in
the drive refusing to respond to the host. A hard drive is
more likely to hold the host hostage, and is more consistent
with your description. The optical drive, on the other hand,
should play nice, until you put a disc in the tray.

When ribbon cable devices share a cable, it is possible for
the controller board on the drive to fail, and hold up the
shared bus on the cable. And that is the reason for testing
drives individually, to see if the symptoms change. The problem
might only show when two drives are sharing the cable.

Paul
.

I'm afraid I got in a hurry and forgot to add this piece of information:
When I attempt to boot up with the internet connection in place, it brings
up the bios screen with this message: "Secondary drive 0 not found. Strike
F1 key to continue. Strike F2 to run the set up utility. I selected the F1
option. I did not feel qualified to run the Set up Utility. Maybe that's
the problem.


"Paul" wrote:

Magsmom wrote:
Dell Dimension B110, running XP, SP3
CD/dvd not working and computer cannot find the drive - BUT - only if
computer is booted up with the broadband internet cable attached and it takes
forever to boot up, probably because the computer is trying to find the
drive. Once the computer is fully booted up (without the CD/dvd drive
function) the internet connection works fine.

However, if computer is booted up without the internet cable attached, it
boots up quickly and everything works fine - including the CD/dvd drive.

So - we can either have the CD/dvd RW drive OR the Internet connection, but
not both.

Don't know if this has anything to do with it, but this is my son's computer
and he had not opened up the case and blew the dust out since he bought it,
so when I opened it up, I found a "blanket" of dust over the air intake and
dust balls the size of golf balls rolling around inside the case.

For the network, check the line on the following web page
called "On w/ PXE". PXE is network booting capability, and for a home
computer that typically would not be used (it is to allow
booting a computer from a server somewhere on the network).
The BIOS default for the network interface cotnroller is "On",
so someone would have had to modify it, to enable PXE. It could
be the computer is attempting to use PXE to boot the computer,
and in the process, is sending packets out via the broadband connection.
When the network cable is disconnected, the BIOS can sense there
is no connection, so it stops trying on that interface. That
is all I can suggest for your behavior with respect to the
network cable.

http://support.dell.com/support/edoc....htm#wp1054626

For the CDROM, the drive could be a ribbon cable type, and sharing a cable with
a second hard drive or optical drive. Sometimes, one drive can upset another
drive on the cable. The Dell may have the drives all jumpered "cable select"
or CS. That is so they don't have to be individually jumpered "master" or
"slave" when sharing a cable.

Test the CDROM by itself on the ribbon cable. Use the end connector, like this.
You can leave it jumpered "CS" as Dell shipped it.

Mobo_end --------------X------X
| |
CDROM

If it still isn't working, check the power is plugged firmly into the
CDROM drive. It could also be a problem with the ribbon cable itself,
although that would be more likely if the owner of the machine
had been playing with it, tugged on it, and so on. So knowing
what's been done inside the machine recently, may suggest whether
there is a reason to try swapping it out.

The thing is, as far as I know, optical drives should respond, even if
the drive mechanism itself is damaged. I don't think they cease to respond
to the OS, if there are minor issues. It is only when media is placed
in the tray, and the drive tries to detect it, that you discover
the real health of the optical drive. So I don't see how the drive
can withhold service, unless somehow it thinks media is present,
and is actively pretending to be doing reads on it.

A hard drive is different. Any little glitch that affects the
ability of the drive to finish its self test or startup
procedures (reading stuff from below sector 0), results in
the drive refusing to respond to the host. A hard drive is
more likely to hold the host hostage, and is more consistent
with your description. The optical drive, on the other hand,
should play nice, until you put a disc in the tray.

When ribbon cable devices share a cable, it is possible for
the controller board on the drive to fail, and hold up the
shared bus on the cable. And that is the reason for testing
drives individually, to see if the symptoms change. The problem
might only show when two drives are sharing the cable.

Paul
.

Magsmom wrote:
I'm afraid I got in a hurry and forgot to add this piece of information:
When I attempt to boot up with the internet connection in place, it brings
up the bios screen with this message: "Secondary drive 0 not found. Strike
F1 key to continue. Strike F2 to run the set up utility. I selected the F1
option. I did not feel qualified to run the Set up Utility. Maybe that's
the problem.


I think this is a picture of your computer. It looks like it
has room for one optical drive and one hard drive.

http://support.dell.com/support/edoc....htm#wp1043338

I think you can temporarily work around your issue, by using
the BIOS setup. That is what it is there for.

The first thing to learn, is how to "escape" from the BIOS without
making any changes. There should be a "discard changes and exit"
option, in the Exit section of the BIOS setup. Unfortunately, the
Dell BIOS setup page, doesn't give any details.

If you're successful in making changes, you'd use the "save and exit"
option, so that the changes would survive turning off the computer
later. The changes wouldn't be kept for later, unless you save them.

One change you can try in the BIOS, is change the boot order.
Take a look at the boot order, and see if the hard drive is
"ahead" of the CDROM. Perhaps if it is, the BIOS will stop looking
for the CDROM and making a nuisance of itself.

# Floppy device
# Hard-Disk Drive
# IDE (CD-ROM)

The other option to try, is set the network interface to "On"
instead of "On w/ PXE".

I can see a potential for interaction between the CDROM
and the network interface, but it is a pretty far fetched
theory. Normally, based on your symptoms, I'd be changing
the CDROM drive. Or even disconnecting the data cable
from the CDROM for one boot cycle, to look for any change
in symptoms. But the fact that the CDROM is detected when
the network is disconnected, is pretty strange. I'm hoping if
there is an issue with not enough low memory for BIOS add-on
modules, that disabling PXE will stop it. The PXE boot module
is an add-on, and I would have expected a tiny memory footprint for it.
Normally, it would take a lot of added hardware (like plugging in
three PCI SCSI cards), before the low memory to hold
BIOS add-in module allocations is full. The space allocated is
128KB from down in the 640KB area. The 128KB is available
"first come first serve", so any BIOS module late to the party
gets left behind.

Other than that, there shouldn't really be an interaction
between those subsystems, even if one of the subsystems is
broken. The only fight I know of, is over the 128KB
temporary area, and that normally takes a lot of added
hardware before it happens. So far, you haven't presented
any evidence the computer is chock full of added stuff.

Paul

Magsmom wrote:
I'm afraid I got in a hurry and forgot to add this piece of information:
When I attempt to boot up with the internet connection in place, it brings
up the bios screen with this message: "Secondary drive 0 not found. Strike
F1 key to continue. Strike F2 to run the set up utility. I selected the F1
option. I did not feel qualified to run the Set up Utility. Maybe that's
the problem.


I think this is a picture of your computer. It looks like it
has room for one optical drive and one hard drive.

http://support.dell.com/support/edoc....htm#wp1043338

I think you can temporarily work around your issue, by using
the BIOS setup. That is what it is there for.

The first thing to learn, is how to "escape" from the BIOS without
making any changes. There should be a "discard changes and exit"
option, in the Exit section of the BIOS setup. Unfortunately, the
Dell BIOS setup page, doesn't give any details.

If you're successful in making changes, you'd use the "save and exit"
option, so that the changes would survive turning off the computer
later. The changes wouldn't be kept for later, unless you save them.

One change you can try in the BIOS, is change the boot order.
Take a look at the boot order, and see if the hard drive is
"ahead" of the CDROM. Perhaps if it is, the BIOS will stop looking
for the CDROM and making a nuisance of itself.

# Floppy device
# Hard-Disk Drive
# IDE (CD-ROM)

The other option to try, is set the network interface to "On"
instead of "On w/ PXE".

I can see a potential for interaction between the CDROM
and the network interface, but it is a pretty far fetched
theory. Normally, based on your symptoms, I'd be changing
the CDROM drive. Or even disconnecting the data cable
from the CDROM for one boot cycle, to look for any change
in symptoms. But the fact that the CDROM is detected when
the network is disconnected, is pretty strange. I'm hoping if
there is an issue with not enough low memory for BIOS add-on
modules, that disabling PXE will stop it. The PXE boot module
is an add-on, and I would have expected a tiny memory footprint for it.
Normally, it would take a lot of added hardware (like plugging in
three PCI SCSI cards), before the low memory to hold
BIOS add-in module allocations is full. The space allocated is
128KB from down in the 640KB area. The 128KB is available
"first come first serve", so any BIOS module late to the party
gets left behind.

Other than that, there shouldn't really be an interaction
between those subsystems, even if one of the subsystems is
broken. The only fight I know of, is over the 128KB
temporary area, and that normally takes a lot of added
hardware before it happens. So far, you haven't presented
any evidence the computer is chock full of added stuff.

Paul

I am normally a fearless adventurer when it comes to delving into computers
or any other electrical or mechanical device - but - only when I have some
remote idea of what I am doing. In other words - I recognize my limitations.
And I must tell you that I am totally terrified of getting into that Setup
utility. Never been there. Never done that. But since there is an "Exit"
without save option, I guess I can give it a try. Wish me luck!

"Paul" wrote:

Magsmom wrote:
I'm afraid I got in a hurry and forgot to add this piece of information:
When I attempt to boot up with the internet connection in place, it brings
up the bios screen with this message: "Secondary drive 0 not found. Strike
F1 key to continue. Strike F2 to run the set up utility. I selected the F1
option. I did not feel qualified to run the Set up Utility. Maybe that's
the problem.


I think this is a picture of your computer. It looks like it
has room for one optical drive and one hard drive.

http://support.dell.com/support/edoc....htm#wp1043338

I think you can temporarily work around your issue, by using
the BIOS setup. That is what it is there for.

The first thing to learn, is how to "escape" from the BIOS without
making any changes. There should be a "discard changes and exit"
option, in the Exit section of the BIOS setup. Unfortunately, the
Dell BIOS setup page, doesn't give any details.

If you're successful in making changes, you'd use the "save and exit"
option, so that the changes would survive turning off the computer
later. The changes wouldn't be kept for later, unless you save them.

One change you can try in the BIOS, is change the boot order.
Take a look at the boot order, and see if the hard drive is
"ahead" of the CDROM. Perhaps if it is, the BIOS will stop looking
for the CDROM and making a nuisance of itself.

# Floppy device
# Hard-Disk Drive
# IDE (CD-ROM)

The other option to try, is set the network interface to "On"
instead of "On w/ PXE".

I can see a potential for interaction between the CDROM
and the network interface, but it is a pretty far fetched
theory. Normally, based on your symptoms, I'd be changing
the CDROM drive. Or even disconnecting the data cable
from the CDROM for one boot cycle, to look for any change
in symptoms. But the fact that the CDROM is detected when
the network is disconnected, is pretty strange. I'm hoping if
there is an issue with not enough low memory for BIOS add-on
modules, that disabling PXE will stop it. The PXE boot module
is an add-on, and I would have expected a tiny memory footprint for it.
Normally, it would take a lot of added hardware (like plugging in
three PCI SCSI cards), before the low memory to hold
BIOS add-in module allocations is full. The space allocated is
128KB from down in the 640KB area. The 128KB is available
"first come first serve", so any BIOS module late to the party
gets left behind.

Other than that, there shouldn't really be an interaction
between those subsystems, even if one of the subsystems is
broken. The only fight I know of, is over the 128KB
temporary area, and that normally takes a lot of added
hardware before it happens. So far, you haven't presented
any evidence the computer is chock full of added stuff.

Paul
.

I am normally a fearless adventurer when it comes to delving into computers
or any other electrical or mechanical device - but - only when I have some
remote idea of what I am doing. In other words - I recognize my limitations.
And I must tell you that I am totally terrified of getting into that Setup
utility. Never been there. Never done that. But since there is an "Exit"
without save option, I guess I can give it a try. Wish me luck!

"Paul" wrote:

Magsmom wrote:
I'm afraid I got in a hurry and forgot to add this piece of information:
When I attempt to boot up with the internet connection in place, it brings
up the bios screen with this message: "Secondary drive 0 not found. Strike
F1 key to continue. Strike F2 to run the set up utility. I selected the F1
option. I did not feel qualified to run the Set up Utility. Maybe that's
the problem.


I think this is a picture of your computer. It looks like it
has room for one optical drive and one hard drive.

http://support.dell.com/support/edoc....htm#wp1043338

I think you can temporarily work around your issue, by using
the BIOS setup. That is what it is there for.

The first thing to learn, is how to "escape" from the BIOS without
making any changes. There should be a "discard changes and exit"
option, in the Exit section of the BIOS setup. Unfortunately, the
Dell BIOS setup page, doesn't give any details.

If you're successful in making changes, you'd use the "save and exit"
option, so that the changes would survive turning off the computer
later. The changes wouldn't be kept for later, unless you save them.

One change you can try in the BIOS, is change the boot order.
Take a look at the boot order, and see if the hard drive is
"ahead" of the CDROM. Perhaps if it is, the BIOS will stop looking
for the CDROM and making a nuisance of itself.

# Floppy device
# Hard-Disk Drive
# IDE (CD-ROM)

The other option to try, is set the network interface to "On"
instead of "On w/ PXE".

I can see a potential for interaction between the CDROM
and the network interface, but it is a pretty far fetched
theory. Normally, based on your symptoms, I'd be changing
the CDROM drive. Or even disconnecting the data cable
from the CDROM for one boot cycle, to look for any change
in symptoms. But the fact that the CDROM is detected when
the network is disconnected, is pretty strange. I'm hoping if
there is an issue with not enough low memory for BIOS add-on
modules, that disabling PXE will stop it. The PXE boot module
is an add-on, and I would have expected a tiny memory footprint for it.
Normally, it would take a lot of added hardware (like plugging in
three PCI SCSI cards), before the low memory to hold
BIOS add-in module allocations is full. The space allocated is
128KB from down in the 640KB area. The 128KB is available
"first come first serve", so any BIOS module late to the party
gets left behind.

Other than that, there shouldn't really be an interaction
between those subsystems, even if one of the subsystems is
broken. The only fight I know of, is over the 128KB
temporary area, and that normally takes a lot of added
hardware before it happens. So far, you haven't presented
any evidence the computer is chock full of added stuff.

Paul
.