[Novalug] lost optical drive

[Jon LaBadie]

On Fri, Apr 03, 2009 at 06:33:25AM -0700, Igor Birman wrote:
> Pull the drive out and put it back in - it's amazing what re-seating stuff can do sometimes..
> 
> There are usually one or two screws on the bottom of a laptop that keep the drive in..
> 

That made sense, particularly for a computer that is frequently
moved like a laptop.

Unfortunately reseating did not solve the problem.

jl


> To: Jon LaBadie <novalugml at jgcomp.com>
> Cc: Novalug <novalug at calypso.tux.org>
> Sent: Friday, April 3, 2009 6:43:41 AM
> Subject: Re: [Novalug] lost optical drive
> 
> On Fri, Apr 3, 2009 at 1:00 AM, Jon LaBadie <novalugml at jgcomp.com> wrote:
> > I'm using a Dell Vostro 1500 (same as Inspirion 1520).
> >
> > Recently I reinstalled the OS and as I'm not happy with the
> > new install I want to redo it.  But my builtin optical drive,
> > a dvd rw, has disappeared.
> >
> > When I boot into the newly installed 64-bit Ubuntu 8.10,
> > no device (/dev/scd0) is created.
> >
> > But the problem seems to be at a lower level.  Even the
> > bios doesn't appear to see the optical drive.  I can hear
> > brief activity from the drive on power up, but it will not
> > boot from the drive.  Even if the bios setting lists only
> > the cd/dvd drive as the single bootable device.
> >
> > What might make a drive be there one day (I just installed
> > the OS a week ago) and not be visible the next?
> 
> Failure of the device or failure of the device interface to the mobo.
> Does the device appear to be getting power when you turn the laptop
> on?
> 
> The way I see it, your practical options are:
> * find someone with a similar laptop and exchange optical drives as a test
> * load up a different OS on a thumb drive, boot from that, and see if
> it detects the drive
> * flash your bios to the latest version (or if it already is, to a
> previous version)
> 
> Good luck
> Pete
> 
> 
> -- 
> Pete Nuwayser
> 
> + let the customer talk +
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>>> End of included message <<<

-- 
Jon H. LaBadie                  jon at jgcomp.com
 JG Computing
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