Disappearing Dell Drivers

[skye.haney]

Hello all,
It seems my parent's Dell Dimension E310 likes to randomly loose drivers. Neither of the two Cd/ DVD drives are even in existence in the device manager, the computer couldn't recognized a kingston thumb drive until I manually went in and installed the driver... it keeps loosing and reinstalling drives for the keyboard, webcam and other things... any suggestions? I know the second memory slot has already gone bad (fixed that the best I could several months ago)... I'm beginning to feel like it might be time to take the old thing out behind the barn... sigh. Mainly my 'rents just need the cd/dvd drives back in operating order!

Thanks for your time and help in advance!
Skye

[Rik_]

Is there also a problem with the time and date being incorrect?

[skye.haney]

Rik,
the time and date are correct... other ideas? I'm at a loss and fearing that the motherboard is dying on me...

[Rik_]

I doubt that it is the motherboard on it's way out. Usually, when they go, they go.

What protective software do you have and have you scanned with it recently?

[skye.haney]

They run AVG 8.5 and scan daily- in fact its scanning as I type... :)

[skye.haney]

I tried a few more things and I'm still stumped! I went through the Dell suggested diagnostics- however the CD/DVD drives don't even show in the boot-up diagnostic to be able to run any test on them. Its like they never existed at all. I tried also shutting down the system and checking all the cables and power supply connections- they are all fine. Windows updates have been set to automatic so that shouldn't be the issue. So I think I will try to roll the system back to last month or so in system restore and see what happens. If I can at least get the machine to recognize the drives are there then I'll try to update the drivers and hope for the best. I've not had a system do this to me before... sigh. silly 'puter.

[skye.haney]

ummm.... so no luck with system restore. grrrrr

[Rik_]

AVG isn't as good as it used to be unfortunately.

Download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware to your desktop.

* Double-click mbam-setup.exe and follow the prompts to install the program.
* At the end, be sure to checkmark the Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, then click Finish.
* If an update is found, it will download and install the latest version.
* Once the program has loaded, select Perform full scan, then click Scan.
* When the scan is complete, click OK, then Show Results to view the results.
* Be sure that everything is checked, and click Remove Selected.
* When completed, a log will open in Notepad.
* Post the log back here.

Make sure that you restart the computer.

[skye.haney]

I came across this thread:

http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread45357.html

and tried DMR's fix... still no cd/dvd drives....

Rik- I'll give malwarebyte a try- it saddens me that AVG is slipping... i've been such a supporter of them for so long! but at this point i'll try anything to get this fixed!
Thank you for your help!

[Rik_]

It's just a possibility that Mbam may pick up something.

I agree about AVG, I used it for quite some time before finding out it was no longer all that effective.

[skye.haney]

I am concerned about the fact that the CD/DVD drives are not even showing up in BIOS... is that usually indicative of a physical problem? I guess malware and stuff is getting more advanced too- sheesh... I took a course at my college on cyber crime from an instructor that we all consider THE local guru- and it blew me away what people have figured out how to do and how much damage they can instill on others... What is your view on trend micro housecall? (we used to use that back when I was a pseudo-tech...lol)

[Rik_]

I don't remember you saying they don't show up in the bios, that's a whole new ball game.
You need to check the data cable to see if it is loose at all. Same with the power cables.
Can you also check the jumper settings too and tell me what they are set to.

[skye.haney]

Sorry! I'm working on this hit an miss until today so I may have failed to mention that! - my day off from work = fixing mom and dad's computer :)

All cables are nice and snug,
and both are set to cable select...

[Rik_]

Might be an idea to get a new data cable to try out, they cost very little.

[skye.haney]

okee dokee... i'll give it a try! It'll probably be tomorrow before I have a chance to try it- Ill let ya know how it goes! I really do appreciate your time and help! :)

[skye.haney]

ok, so today's update:

Mbam did indeed find and removed two trojans avg missed... i am glad you directed me to Mbam but indeed very sad about AVG...

Got a new data cable and got it in there nice and snug- still no drives...

[Rik_]

Ok, can you describe what type of drives they are (ata or sata) and exactly how they are connected? Same with your hard drive(s).

[hughv]

This fix often helps:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060

[skye.haney]

Hughv- thanks, tried the Microsoft fix but still no go....

Rik - forgive me if the wording is wrong we are in territory I'm not all that familiar with now...

the Lite On It LTN-4891506C CD drive is attached by ATA to the Toshiba DVD Drive TS H492 which is attached by ATA to the motherboard.

the Maxtor 6l160MO Hardrive is attatched to the motherboard by SATA.

on a side note, i did also try to 'unhook' both cd dvd drives and use another one that I know was working - the computer still didn't recognize it. I just thought I would try. Also at all times the drives have power, they flash on boot up, and will accept a picture cd and act like they are reading it but the computer just doesn't know it's there....

thanks again!

[Rik_]

How many ata sockets does your motherboard have?

[skye.haney]

One is the loneliness number that you'll ever find! (I only see one, are you thinking it might be the socket? cause that scares me....)

[mathewdavid]

Please try to search dell driver on the net.
They are availble on there.
Please check it.

[Rik_]

Try resetting your bios. INSTRUCTIONS