Computer runs dvd-rom drives, but won't read discs

Question

I just built my first PC and I'm running into a bit of trouble.

My DVD-rom drives won't read any discs, they just seem to get in a constant state of reading.

My computer can recognize the devices (yes there are two of them) and even downloaded drivers for each.

Both of these drives came out of other machines where they worked fine, so I don't think it's a problem with the drives, but I'm not sure what else I should check to figure out what's causing this. Plus everything else in the machine works fine, Could the ATA connection on the board be faulty without it effecting anything else? is there a way to test that?

I'm at my wits end and just about ready to pass out in my chair!

Answer 1

It could be a problem with the jumper settings on the drives. Even if the drives were working in another system, if the jumpers are set wrong for the new system it could do weird stuff like this. Okay, so they're connected to the motherboard with ATA connectors. Are they connected to the same IDE controller? Are they sharing controllers with hard drives? There are basically two ways to go: drive select and cable select. For drive select to work, all the drives on a controller must have their jumpers configured as either primary or secondary, depending on which connector they're on. The other way to go is cable select, where all the drives' jumpers are set for cable select and it doesn't matter which connector they're hooked up to; but for that to work all the cables have to be 80-lead, not 40-lead. I suggest that you read the manuals for the motherboard and the drives as they should provide details regarding jumper settings and so on.

Answer 2

Did you by chance download 64 bit drivers for a 32 OS or vice versa?

You can test the ATA connections through connecting another known working device already on the PC to those connections, or even connect those devices to a known working ATA connection.