DVD RW drive not detected on laptop

[Xinn]

Went to my dads the other day and tried installing something on him laptop. When the disk didn't autorun i went to My Computer and discovered it wasn't detecting the drive. I checked the device manager and it isn't there either. Anybody any ideas??

Thanks

 

[Pyrosoft]

well if you can open it to put a disc in then it implies that the drive is securely locked in place enough to get power to open it.
does it show up in the list of devices in the BIOS?

 

[Xinn]

I think it shows up in the bios yeah, although im not 100% because its the most retarded bios ive every seen and cant seem to get it to do anything at all.