Another computer question.

[scotts]

Well my brother stayed here for a couple of days last week. He is a computer guy (sort of) and he "fixed" my computer without asking. Now I cannot access my CD drives. I tried reloading the drivers but it says that the driver files are corrupted. I tried to do a system restore (XP), but I had turned it off last month and now the earliest restore date is after he was here. I had to turn off the system restore to fix some virus problems I was having.
I tried to load the drivers off microsoft and cannot find them. I also went to the CD manufacturers websites and they do not have the drivers. I e-mailed on manufacturer and they said they do not have drivers because they are built into Windows.
So I can't reload windows because it is on a CD and I cannot access the CD drives. I bought a new CD drive from a different manufacturer but once again the drivers are corrupted.
Any help would be appreciated.
Scott

 

[jkvjl]

Do you have the XP CD? If so maybe it's time to redo the whole thing bring it back to factory and then not let your brother touch it again.

 

[fishking]

did u got to add new hardware

 

[scotts]

Yes and yes.
I cannot relaod windows because it is on CD and I can't access my cd drives.
I went to new hardware. No luck. Unplugged the drives, restarted the computer. Plugged in the drives and restarted the computer. Windows found new hardware but the drivers could not be installed because the files are corrupted.
Scott

 

[jkvjl]

What happen's if you start the computer holding down F5 and then start the computer in Safe mode then see if you can reinstall XP

 

[tizzo]

Short of reformatting your hard drive I'm at a loss! When the dialogue box states the file is corrupted, does it give you the file name? If so run a "Find" and delete that file from every location and then reboot. Possibly Windows will add those files back in, or maybe the new CD Rom you bought will function, and allow you to do it manually. It sounds like this virus was pretty strong. I don't know how large those specific files are, but if you can delete them, maybe you can get those files from Windows or a friend and put them on a floppy or Zip drive and install them from there vs. the CD Rom.

 

[tangman99]

If you know what brand of CD drive you have, go to their website and see if you can download the latest versions for XP. Chances are they will be newer and you can load a newer version. Even if they are the same, you can reinstall them from the download.
Hope that help you out.

 

[fshhub]

something ain't right here
it cannot find your cd roms at all??
is that in windows, or in the c-mos as well?
are you familiar with the c-mos and bios settings?
and was he INSIDE the computer at all?
it actually sounds more like he did something like 'bump' a connector inside of the system. or he screwed with the mother board drivers. IF you IDE drivers(or your 4 in 1) were tampered with, a connection loose or not proper, then that could do it. but windows xp loosing rom drivers? that almost does not sound possible

 

[beth]

Can you go to Device Manager and delete you CDRom then restart Windows? When you start windows, it will be like you never had a cdrom and windows will recognize the "new hardware" [cdrom]. Then go thru the steps of reinstalling.
Call your brother and ask him exactly what he did.

 

[stacyt]

I would check cmos to make sure the ide channel is not disable.
Even if windows does not detect the drive, you can still install from the cdrom. Insert the xp cd, restart the computer, and boot from cd. Bypasses windows, and starts the install. Just make sure that the boot from cd is enabled in cmos.

 

[stacyt]

BTW,
If you cant even boot from cd, than your looking at either motherboard, cmos, cd drive, or cable problem.

 

[fender]

Echoing what was said above, if you can't get to the CD, either the drive, connector or motherboard is bad (or the drive is disabled in the BIOS). CD roms are all a standard now and "Drivers" merely enable features for specific models or optimize for the drive. Access to the drive itself is a hardware thing and you will get drive access via the BIOS not your operating system. This is how all operating systems developed in the last 4 years are loaded (floppy drives are dinosaurs).

 

[simm]

As said check the BIOS. make sure you can see the drive at the begining of the boot up as well. if not it mau be disabled in BIOS or a cable is unpluged. There are no "drivers" per say for a CD rom.

 

[salty cheese]

If it's saying the driver files are corrupted than I doubt it's a hardware problem. Have you tried downloading the start up disks from microsoft and doing a system repair?

 

[fshhub]

so, how'd you make out?
agian, if all the above suggestions fail. you could always try reloading your motherboard drivers by downloading them from the net. because if your ide drivers are corrupted, it will affect your drives.

 

[scotts]

Thank-you all for your help. I know that I am somewhat computer literate and in may ways computer illeterate.(I don't even think I can spell illiterate).
I am not sure where to look for the CMOS. I did try to start the computer with the XP CD in it. The light for the CD drive came on and the monitor said to press any key to boot from the CD. But about 5 seconds later the computer started as it normally does.
The error message I am getting is "Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be missing or corrupted. (Code 39)".
I even installed an external CD that we had bought years ago. I got the same error message when I installed this drive. The external drive is installed with a USB.
If you want the full story here it is. If you don't then don't read this, I did not want to bore anybody. Whe we bought this computer it had ME on it. I upgraded to XP. The CD writer softaware was not "digitally compliant" with XP so every time we sould start the computer it would say that this software was not working. Minor inconvience with the error message, but we lived with it. After my brother was here we no longer got that error message. But a couple of days later we found that we could not access the CD drives. I have 2 one is a DVD and one is a CDR/RW. I also know that he messed with my computer because that are some extra "stuff" on my task bar.(lower right on my computer)
My assumption is that he did something to get rid of the error mesages that I was getting and in someway messed with the drivers for XP.
Sorry if I sound completley stupid.
Scott

 

[fshhub]

ok
that helps quite a bit, maybe
when you put the cd in, and it comes up on boot up saying
"press any key to boot from cd" did you try that? just hit the space bar or any key at all. but you have to do it right then. and it should boot from your cd.
now, since it is saying that it is reading the cd drive.so, it probably is a windows/software issue. and a reload may help alot.
and you do not sound really illiterate, when it comes to computers. believe me i have heard many much much worse.
there are some other fixes and ways to go about it. but a reload with windows xp would probably be the easiest route. esp. since it is XP and not ME.
trying the device manager as someone had already mentioned could work and would be easy. but if not, then a reload would be easier for you than even trying to trouble shoot it, probably.
HTH

 

[misfit]

What processor speed is it ? what kind of drives are they?
If the processor speed is 500 or less Win xp usually doesnt like it. And some dvd cdr/rw drives that are some what older need to have the rom flashed.that you can download from the manufacture website.