DVDROM and CDRW Drivers Won't install

[Shenan Stanley]

I am working on a friend's computer and I need some suggestions
when I next get over there.

The Dell computer would not boot XP, reporting a config.sys
problem. It directed me to the Recovery Console to do the fix. I
could not get the XP CD to boot in either the DVDROM or CDRW, so I
finally swapped in an ordinary CDROM which booted the XP disk.
FIXMBR in the Repair option restored the computer to booting XP.
Everything seemed ok and both the DVDROM and CDRW worked fine. But
a day or two later they stopped working and swapping in the
ordinary CDROM did not not work either.
These drives show in the BIOS, but in Device Manager they have the
yellow surprise mark. If I remove them in Device Manager and try to
reinstall them with Add Hardware, they get identified but I get a
message that Windows cannot install the drivers.

Can I fix this in the Repair mode again? Would I use the "Enable"
command? What would an example of an Enable command look like?

Barring this could I get it fixed by by going to a Repair/Reinstall?

I now realize as I post this that the CD drives may not allow me to
boot the XP disk.

I would appreciate any suggestions.

If putting in a new CD/DVD drive fixes the problem for more than two days -
I would say 'replace the defective hardware'.

 

[LarryC]

I am working on a friend's computer and I need some suggestions when I
next get over there.

The Dell computer would not boot XP, reporting a config.sys problem. It
directed me to the Recovery Console to do the fix. I could not get the
XP CD to boot in either the DVDROM or CDRW, so I finally swapped in an
ordinary CDROM which booted the XP disk. FIXMBR in the Repair option
restored the computer to booting XP. Everything seemed ok and both the
DVDROM and CDRW worked fine. But a day or two later they stopped
working and swapping in the ordinary CDROM did not not work either.

These drives show in the BIOS, but in Device Manager they have the
yellow surprise mark. If I remove them in Device Manager and try to
reinstall them with Add Hardware, they get identified but I get a
message that Windows cannot install the drivers.

Can I fix this in the Repair mode again? Would I use the "Enable"
command? What would an example of an Enable command look like?

Barring this could I get it fixed by by going to a Repair/Reinstall?

I now realize as I post this that the CD drives may not allow me to boot
the XP disk.

I would appreciate any suggestions.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I am working on a friend's computer and I need some suggestions
when I next get over there.

The Dell computer would not boot XP, reporting a config.sys
problem. It directed me to the Recovery Console to do the fix. I
could not get the XP CD to boot in either the DVDROM or CDRW, so I
finally swapped in an ordinary CDROM which booted the XP disk.
FIXMBR in the Repair option restored the computer to booting XP.
Everything seemed ok and both the DVDROM and CDRW worked fine. But a day
or two later they stopped working and swapping in the
ordinary CDROM did not not work either.
These drives show in the BIOS, but in Device Manager they have the
yellow surprise mark. If I remove them in Device Manager and try
to reinstall them with Add Hardware, they get identified but I
get a message that Windows cannot install the drivers.

Can I fix this in the Repair mode again? Would I use the "Enable"
command? What would an example of an Enable command look like?

Barring this could I get it fixed by by going to a
Repair/Reinstall?
I now realize as I post this that the CD drives may not allow me
to boot the XP disk.

I would appreciate any suggestions.

If putting in a new CD/DVD drive fixes the problem for more than
two days - I would say 'replace the defective hardware'.

Who said the drives were necessarily the problem?

You said you put in another drive to get things installed. At that point
(not booting from the CD) the problem is not wone of Windows drivers - so if
the drives would not work then - something was wrong OTHER than Windows
Drivers. In fact - if it would not boot from the CD you put in - it was
more than likley hardware.

What all did you change when you put in the new drive to allow you to
install Windows XP? Cable? Jumper settings? Power cables? different
controller was used? etc. The problem most likely lies someplace other
than Windows XP itself if you cannot BOOT from the CD drives in question.

 

[LarryC]

Thanks, but the drives worked in another computer.

 

[Patrick Keenan]

I am working on a friend's computer and I need some suggestions when I next
get over there.

The Dell computer would not boot XP, reporting a config.sys problem.

XP does not have a config.sys file. There *is* a portion of the registry
called config, but it is not "config.sys".

It directed me to the Recovery Console to do the fix. I could not get the
XP CD to boot in either the DVDROM or CDRW,

Then there is another system problem at a lower level than the OS.

so I finally swapped in an ordinary CDROM which booted the XP disk. FIXMBR
in the Repair option restored the computer to booting XP. Everything
seemed ok and both the DVDROM and CDRW worked fine. But a day or two
later they stopped working and swapping in the ordinary CDROM did not not
work either.

Then there is another system problem at a lower level than the OS.

These drives show in the BIOS, but in Device Manager they have the yellow
surprise mark. If I remove them in Device Manager and try to reinstall
them with Add Hardware, they get identified but I get a message that
Windows cannot install the drivers.

Can I fix this in the Repair mode again?

Not if there's a hardware problem.

Would I use the "Enable" command? What would an example of an Enable
command look like?

Barring this could I get it fixed by by going to a Repair/Reinstall?

Repair installs largely use the existing registry, which is possibly where
your system's specific problem may be located. You can try the repair
install, but be aware that if it doesn't work right way, updates won't help
either, because as the saying goes, you're digging in the wrong place.

I now realize as I post this that the CD drives may not allow me to boot
the XP disk.

If the CD drives don't boot, it has nothing to do with XP. Boot from CD
happens before the system is aware that there's an OS. This means that
any OS is not relevant.

I would appreciate any suggestions.

Isolate the problems. If you can't boot from the CD, disconnect the hard
disks and determine the real problems.

HTH
-pk