Need Help!!

[IRTxert]

Yesterday when i restarted my computer, the HP screen stayed for a long time before booting up, and when i got into WinXP, there is no CD/DVD drive!! I restarted several times and it was only normal for once.
Today the same problem happened.My computer doesn't recognize CD-Drives and takes a long time to start.and i was unable to fix it!

SO what should i do? I'm sure it's not a win-xp driver problem, because it was not possible to boot from CD , either. And i opened my case to make sure every cable is plugged in tight...

can anyone help me? is this a mobo problem or a bios problem?

and in the configuration screen at startup, it doesn't show any CD drives.

 

[ray4389]

Try unplugging. Start it up. Pluggin it back in. Start it back up. Make sure th light comes on if not it COULD be a power issue. Otherwise I'm not sure if its still nto working. I had a similar problem b4.

 

[IRTxert]

I tried many times, the power is always on. so i don't think it's a power problem

oh and one thing i forgot to mention:

if i swich slots of the two IDE cables (one for the CD and one for HDD) on the CPU side, it's the HDD that doesn't work, so i don't think it's a Cable problem or CD-rom problem..it seems that slot on the mobo is broken,

what should i do now?

 

[ThomasE66]

Did you switch cables when you changed slots? Rule out the IDE ribbon cable, otherwise yes it sounds like a motherboard problem.

 

[IRTxert]

no i didn't switch cables, i just switched slots...im new at this butr would flashing the bios help?or is there a way to make it work without buying an mobo?

is there a way to fix that slot?

how about those controllers that make more ide slots?

And I know the cable works because it works on another computer