CD/DVD drive is not detected in BIOS/Boot Menu

[VaioUser]

Hi Guys, I have registered in this forum hoping that i might receive some valuable information as to how to go about and fix my Vaio laptop which does not recognise the CD/DVD drive at all in the boot menu.

I read all the threads with similar problems but none are quite the same as my case and not much helpful therefore. Please help me if you can.

It started about two weeks ago when i opened a file from the internet and the whole thing came crashing down. i imagine there must have been several malicious viruses and trojans in the file, since it literally seemed like hell had broken loose. i managed to use the laptop for a few more hours, since i was in the middle of doing a project, and after i turned it off, it wouldn't come back on.

i starts normally when turned back on, but it doesn't get very far.

1st screen: VAIO. Intel. Phoenix Technologies.

2nd screen: The bar moving sidely towards the right with (C) Microsoft Corporations.

3rd screen: A problem has been detected and Windows had to shut down to

5th Screen: Startup Repair: Windows cannot repair this computer automatically. If you have recently attached a device to this computer, such as a camera or portable music player, remove it and start again. (none of these are attached). If you continue to see this message, contact your system administrator or comuter manufactrure for assistance. Click Finish to exit and shut down your computer.

the whole process is repeated over and over, that is until i finally managed to attain a Vista CD, and when i press F2 the BIOS menu appears, however in there the CD/DVD drive does not appear. What do i do about this? The drive works fine, since it was always working even the day before the virus struck.

what could it be?

any help is much appreciated,

Thanks, VaiosUser.

[sid0972]

if u mean to say that the drive is just not visible in the BIOS and u cant change the boot priority, then u can do two things
1) try to load fail-safe defaults

2) If u know how to open a laptop, then u can open it and in the motherboard u'll see the CMOS battery....just reset the battery, or remove the battery for 2 min, then attach it again
that shud restore ur BIOS settings to original ones


and if u mean that ur not able to boot from the disc, try changing the boot priority, first being DVD drive

[VaioUser]

Hi, thanks for your reply. the cd/dvd drive does not appear at all.

this is what appears,

Boot priority order:
1. Internal optical drive
2. Floppy disk drive (*)
3. Internal hard disk drive
4. Network
5. USB Flash (*)

i think the openning of the laptop and resetting the battery sounds like a good idea.. but i have never done smth like this before. i wonder how difficult it will be and whether there is any risk of doing further damage.

Thanks a lot.

[VaioUser]

Hi, i just opened the laptop and resetted the battery by plugging it out and then plugging it in again, and the same thing is again. nothing has changed.

any ideas?

thanks.

[CPU09]

Your CD/DVD drive is being detected in your BIOS, it would be the Internal/Optical drive
Ie. Number 1 in your boot order

[sid0972]

Originally Posted by CPU09

Your CD/DVD drive is being detected in your BIOS, it would be the Internal/Optical drive
Ie. Number 1 in your boot order

he is right.....if the option "press any key to boot from CD" doesnt comes...
then u shud try another disc...it might not b readable by the reader

[VaioUser]

hi guys, thanks for your replies, they have been very helpful.

i managed to install it eventually, and yes, you are right, internal optical drive was the cd rom drive, but i had no idea about that until someone else pointed it out to me.

however even then the vista would not boot.. it simply would not give me the 'press any key...' screen. finally i forced it to boot by excluding all the other alternatives in the boot menu and leaving only the internal optical drive there, and the pc had to boot from that since there wasn't anything else to boot from, and there it was, 'press any key...', so the CD was good, but it wouldn't give me the press any key screen.

its so ridiculous, since i had the guts of the thing out, and it wouldn't open and i was in the verge of ripping it apart, since i was getting pissed about it and i was thinking it was finished anyway, and now i have it back, as good as new.

thank you for your help.

regards,

a vaio user.

[sid0972]

any time