reichpapers Posted May 3, 2002 Share Posted May 3, 2002 Ok, this is my problem. My previous computer was a Packard Bell, 64 Mb, 333 mHz Cyrix. One day I installed an update patch for the Sudden Strike game. When I rebooted I noticed that my CDROM drive letter was no longer visible in Explorer (let alone any other program). My CDROM drive was effectively done, and it wouldn’t reinstall. When I formatted my drive and reinstalled windows the CDROM worked through the whole install but dissapeared again when I did the final reboot in the installation. How can I get my CDROM back? Also keep in mind I added a new CDROM after the other was not showing (I destroyed it trying to take the CD out), so it does it with new CDROM’s too. Now I want to connect my old and new computer for head to head play, but one is broke. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted May 3, 2002 Share Posted May 3, 2002 What Windows version are you running ? Sometimes a CDROM won't appear if your Master Boot Record has been overwritten with a virus (which can then infect almost any non-write protected diskette inserted into the computer too). When your Master Boot Record is infected Windows will run all of the hard drives in 'compatibility mode' which will reduce the performance. CDROM/DVDs are dependent on 32-bit device drivers in the Windows environment and will disappear when 'compatibility mode' is in effect. You can check whether you have this problem by going to Start Menu > Settings > Control Panel > System control panel > Performance tab > in here there will be mention of compatibility mode in the text box area or some other warning if there is a problem. If you are experiencing a problem with your MBR, then you need a clean, virus-free diskette that is bootable and has a copy of FDISK.EXE on it. Once you've booted with this diskette at the command prompt you would type FDISK /MBR. This will rewrite you MBR and clear up any virus that is resident there (but you will HAVE to boot from the clean diskette in order for this to work). If the other computer is the same OS (I assume you're running Windows 95/98 or ME) and it DOESN'T have this problem also, then you can create the boot disk there (Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs control panel > Boot/Startup Disk creation tab). WRITE PROTECT your diskette once it has been created (the 'window' will be open when it is protected). The Windows-created Boot Disk will load up a RAM-disk and I believe that FDISK.EXE will be on that (probably a D: or E: - it will mention it in the boot process when the RAM disk is created). I guess your problems probably came from an infected patch for Sudden Strike. If you don't have an anti-virus program, then MBR viruses can usually be prevented by enabling a 'virus protect' or 'boot sector write protect' setting available in some BIOS's. I'm not sure if your Packard Bell model has this or not (quite possibly not - I can't recall a lot of earlier Phoenix BIOS's having this particular feature). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reichpapers Posted May 3, 2002 Author Share Posted May 3, 2002 Schrullenhaft, Thanks, I thought I knew alot about computers, but you take the cake. Where did you learn all this stuff? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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