How do i setup cdrom in bios? The pc doesnt pickup the cdrom. The cdrom has power and ive put a cd in. Theres no option to selèct cd inwindows xp on this pc. Please help

BIOS means Basic Input Output System. It is the first thing that operates when the computer is turned on, and is separate from the OS, though it interacts with the OS. The term BIOS is generally used interchangeably with the terms CMOS and Setup, though the three terms mean three generally distinct things. This training discusses the basics of the BIOS, BIOS settings you should be concerned with, and how to update a BIOS.

http://helpdesk.oneonta.edu/resnet/training/bios.htm

I used to think it meant built in operating system.

CMOS is important. On some motherboards even if the BIOS is password protected you can take out the motherboard battery that runs the clock and it clears the password.

System doesn't seem to recognize that you have a cd rom installed! I don't think poking at the bios or mos will help - but check the device status under computer/hardware.. If status is ok, maybe you need a driver update :)

Don't touch your BIOS if you don't know exactly what you're doing. You mess up your PC big time.

1) Make sure that the cable is plugged in correctly to the Motherboard and the CD-ROM.

2) Switch the Motherboard headers that is used by the CD-ROM. (if possible, some motherboards will only have two headers: one for the HDD and one for the CD-ROM)

3) Replace the cable that goes from the Motherboard to the CD-ROM.

That should get you going, if it doesn't, let me know and we'll go to stage two.

in windows explorer theres no sign of a cdrom, yet i canow open and close the cdrom and a light goes on showing itwork somehow, yet windows xp is not showing that it recognise the cdrom. The people that dönated the pc said the cdrom workd before and since its unpackd here itdoesnt work. Iwonder why

Could be the drivers. Make you have the proper drivers installed correctly.

Niceladyrealy,

Your CD-ROM has power, so it's doing what a CD-ROM does. The draw opens, it tries to read the disk, etc. That's all perfectly normal. The problem is that your motherboard cannot communicate with the CD-ROM. Please follow my instructions (in a previous post) and let me know how that works out for you.

USB CD-ROMs are cool but again the BIOS can affect that. I got an USB Iomega DVD CD-RW for 7 bucks at Goodwill and an Iomega USB 250 MB Zip for 3 bucks at an Antique store.

*Question: Is the XP disc a DVD? You might have a DVD installion disc and your drive might be a CD drive. Seen it happen plenty of times.

the computer was delivered with windows xp already installed,the previous ownersaid the cdrom was working fine,however i tried to put a cd in and the computer still not acknowledging the cdrom drive.theres only a c drive and when i connect the memory stick it picks up an extra drive and no cdrom drive. Thankyou very much for everyones efforto help.

From what you've posted, here's what I think. You say when you put in a CD, a light comes on. Therefore it has power and isn't a hardware issue. Also, the previous owners said it worked before, meaning the drivers are also fine. However, you didn't answer my question - is it a DVD-ROM drive or a CD-ROM drive? And is the disc a DVD or CD?

i've ran into that problem before, and i found the pin settings on the cd/dvd player was wrong. check them before you mess with your BIOS, and set them up accordingly.

The jumpers? I guess she could check them...but as far as changing them, you might have her setting up her drives mastered and slaved incorrectly. More confusion...

that was the problem i had, and it worked fine after that. but i could never get a seagate HD to work on a windows system, so i quit buying them...sometimes they just don't wanna work.

True, I usually go Western Digital. Hasn't failed me yet.

thats what started getting, never had any problems with the WD...

Thats what I was going to say it sounds like the drivers. Goole search your the exact make and model number of your pc as well as the disk drive. One of the search results will be the driver you need. This is likely going to display the disk drive icon once it is installed. Windows auto updates might fix this as well.


But sense you asked I will tell you. BIOS is available to enter right before the operating system loads. It is on every PC. On just about every system it will say press f_ (like f10 f11 f8 or something like that) to enter BIOS right before the Windows screen shows up and starts loading windows. You can possible do damage to the system by making changes to it. On the other hand a lot of it is self explanatory. This will most likely not fix the CD/DVD drive problem however it might depending on the settings. If you were trying to boot from your CD rom BIOS would work it does not sound like that is what you were trying to do though.

No, it's not the drivers.