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Windows XP not recognizing hardware

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7 replies

by macarelli00

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I am troubleshooting a PC with XP. It has a CD Rom and a DVD Player on it. It was loaded and has been working for about 5 months. Now neither of them are recognized by XP. I have uninstalled the devices and the drivers, reinstalled them with no change. In the device manager there is an exclamation point next to each device. Error code 41 is what I am receiving (XP recognizes the drivers but not the hardware). What should I do next?

7 replies

by csmith

Sounds like the IDE cable on channel 2 has come loose from the motherboard.
Check to make sure it is not partially unplugged.
Regards, Chris

by macarelli00

Thank you for your help but unfortunately it didn't work.
I disconnected the IDE cable and connected it securely and they are still not recognized.

by rcom

Are the CD drive connected on the same cable? See what happens if you connect only one at a time. One of the drives may be bad and causing both to have problems.

Uninstall the devices and reboot. You souldn't have to install drivers for CDROMs.Windows should find them. You may also need to uninstall the secondary IDE controller for them.

by csmith

Well that gets rid of the most common hardware problem.
The next most likely possibility is the OS Registry and System files.
Thus its time to run Registry Checker and System File Checker.
If that doesn't do it, then its reload XP :(
Regards, Chris

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