Any computer wizards here?
 

My situation is this, have sony vaio desktop, has cd reader and dvd burner, neither works, replaced both any thoughts? I need to change the drive but can't as I wont be able to use the recovery disks since the reader doesnt work. On another avenue it's 5 years old or so, maybe should just buy new one.

Re: Any computer wizards here?
 

I think you answered your own question. Christmas is just around the corner,,,,

Re: Any computer wizards here?
 

What operating system do you have? You need to go into 'device manager' and see if they are showing up. With my W2000 I would:

start>settings>control panel>system>hardware>device manager

expand 'dvd/cd rom drives'

do the 2 drives show up? do you see any yellow exclamation marks or: i think the other is a red circle with a line through it.

XP has a problem where the drives dissapear. You can download a free utility that will bring them back. I think something gets hosed in the registry. Being 5 years old you may even have WME or W98se......

Re: Any computer wizards here?
 

Thanks Ghost, it was also of great help to me :smile:

Re: Any computer wizards here?
 

What do you mean by 'neither works'?

Do you have a local college? Call it up and ask a teacher who will be willing to fix your machine in exchange for a pizza. :D

Or, if you want to suffer pain and frustation, we can always try to debug it online.

Re: Any computer wizards here?
 

Drive troubleshooting chart.

Drive installation.