Sony pcg-f610 laptop, lsc-24082k drive

[leslar]

I have a Sony laptop pcg-f610 , running WinMe. The CD dive has been
working and not working lately, or when you would put a disk in it and close the drive door the computer would shutdown. So I pulled the old drive out and the computer runs fine. Since I wanted a CD Writer I ordered a new one. A lite-on lsc-24082k cdr/rw/dvd this is supposed to be a replacement for the original drive.


Put the new drive in, but could not get it to install. It would just tell me no drives found.

So i had the bright ideal, well i only have a 6gb hardrive so every now and then i do a reformat and re-install, just to clean all the junk off.

Here comes the problem, I did the reformat, then i started to run my win-me boot floopy. As it is loading I tell it to start with cd-rom support. It still tells me "no drives found". So I swap back to the old cd drive and restart with the floopy. It picks up that drive and installs a driver for it. But that drive does not work. Switch back to the new lite-on drive and reboot with the floopy. It tells me "NO DRIVES FOUND"

Any ideals what i should do next?? As it is I have a laptop with no operating sys on it now!!

[Mayet]

You could try checking the interface on the laptop. Sounds like there could be an issue there. Also check that the settings are correct in bios although if the previous was intermittent that may not be the case.

[NooNoo]

Bios settings would be the key I think too Mayet ... thing is on these older laptops the bios was accessed via floppy disk to a hidden partition... do you have a setup floppy that came with it?

[leslar]

I have all the orignal cd's for the laptop but no floppys. As far as i can tell everything is correct in the bios. I have tried diffrent settings there but nothing has worked yet. The drive lights flash and it will spin up but it still gives me "no cd-rom drive found" while booting from a win startup floopy.

In the bios setup utility while looking at the BOOT screen I have

*Removable Devices "floopy"
*Hard Drive
!ATAPI CD-rom drive

it has a ! in front of it????
THe new lit-on drive is ATAPI/5 ...................will i have to make a custom boot floopy?

Also as it boots from the floopy, when i tell it to start with cd-rom support. It looks for cd-rom drive lable MSCD-001.........then says no drive found. Is there something in that drive lable??

Thanks

[NooNoo]

This sounds like you need a bios update... if memory serves you have to put in your model and serial number at Sony Support in order to get the right file.

I haven't dealt much with sony lappies, anyone else seen this ! in the bios?

The boot floppy by the way, just sets dos drivers in order to use the cdrom/rw in dos... this cannot work if the bios is not reporting the cd drive correctly - which it aint.

You have to solve the riddle of the ! in the bios first.