DVD detected as a HDD?

UnusualSuspect · 9 Dec 2008 at 18:52

Hi all,

This is a weird thing. I've had this computer running fine for a long time and no problems. Today, my brother tries to burn a DVD disc and all hell breaks loose. The DVD doesn't burn anything, can't even get it to recognise it being there at all, so I take over and reset the computer to get a clean start.

In the BIOS bootup screen I realise I have three hard drives instead of two. The DVD drive has suddenly decided its tired of feeling inferior and has turned itself into a HDD. Naturally the BIOS disagrees with this and makes everything slow to a crawl, and booting anything through the hard drives becomes impossible. It just goes to a black screen and thats it, windows loading over.

Disabling the IDE in the BIOS gets rid of the problem, naturally, but then I don't have a DVD drive anymore. For reference, the motherboard is a 965P-DS3 rev 1.0. The two hard drives are on 0 & 1, and the DVD is obviously on the IDE line, so number 4.

Has anyone got any idea how to get rid of this odd problem and get my DVD back? Thanks in advance.

Reality|Bites · 9 Dec 2008 at 21:36

change the ide cable?

UnusualSuspect · 9 Dec 2008 at 22:04

Reality|Bites said:
change the ide cable?

Actually, just went one better and pulled out the whole thing. Rebooted with IDE switched on in the BIOS and despite there being nothing plugged in, it still detects a HDD on line 4. What could possibly cause that? Its like its been hard written into my setup, but how can that happen from Windows? Makes no sense. And more importantly, how the hell do I get it to go away?

Reality|Bites · 9 Dec 2008 at 22:11

reset the cmos?

UnusualSuspect · 9 Dec 2008 at 23:11

Reality|Bites said:
reset the cmos?

Just did that too. Was holding off on that for a better plan, as its a bugger to reach the pins with the graphics card in there. But anyway, reset the CMOS, rebooted and same problem. On boot up what should be a DVD drive appears as a HDD and it refuses to load anything up. Have to turn off the IDE in the BIOS again.

Maybe reflash the BIOS?

UnusualSuspect · 9 Dec 2008 at 23:24

UnusualSuspect said:
Maybe reflash the BIOS?

Answering my own question. Just updated the BIOS to F14B and still no change, still a DVD pretending to be a Hard Drive. I'm guessing the motherboard is fubar?

Reality|Bites · 9 Dec 2008 at 23:35

just buy a SATA drive then. cheaper than buying a new board.