CD/DVD Drive No Longer Visible

I have a 2 year old Compaq with XP OS. I have a CD/DVD reader and burner
combination drive. Up until two weeks ago, the drive worked fine. Now, I
can put in a disk and hear it start up, but the drive is not visible under My
Computer. I can start up my burner app and burn fine. Sometimes, if I
reboot, the drive is suddenly visible, but not always. A few times I tried
scanning for new hardware and the drive would appear, but usually it's not
even visible there.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

--
To be the best, you have to first give up everything.

Message posted via HWKB.com
http://www.hwkb.com/Uwe/Forums.aspx/...d-dvd/200711/1

I have a 2 year old Compaq with XP OS. I have a CD/DVD reader and burner
combination drive. Up until two weeks ago, the drive worked fine. Now, I
can put in a disk and hear it start up, but the drive is not visible under
My
Computer.....

Possible culprits - bad drive, bad or poorly seated ribbon cable, faulty
motherboard contoller, goobered up driver install (probably least likely
condidering steps you have taken already)
Consider adding external USB CD/DVD RW drive - you would not have to open
computer case to hook up. I recently got a Sony double layer external DVD
burner for @$90 at Staples.