Disappearing CD/CDRW

I installed a TEAC CD-RW for my sister-in-law a few months ago.She has used it many times w/ no problems.Now she says the CD and the CD-RW don't show up in Device MGR at all.They are still getting power(trays still open and close)It's an IBM 233.I'm going over to trouble shoot it-I'm only going by what she has told me over the phone.I've already had her run scan disk,defrag,reboot it and have windows look for new hardware but nothing so far.She is using WIN98se. I have an extra ide cable -could that have gone bad? I'd love a few tips on where to start w/ the troubleshooting--Thanks Christie

I run a Teac W54E and a Sumsung SC-140, a few time this has happened to me, restored the registry and all was fine. For some reason win98 restored the old registry.. <IMG SRC="smilies/confused.gif" border="0">

Is the machine running Norton AV at all? We have had problems with that when running Realtime File Protection. Check out the Norton AV site for possible fixes. Good Luck.

I've reformated a Hd when doing a fresh install,but I'm not sure if I know how to update the registry.Someone suggested going into safe mode and seeing if the drives are showing up there and removing them then rebooting.I'm going over tonight to see if I can fix it.I only have a copy of WIN98 1st ed and she is running second. I do have a old Dell recovery cd w/ WIN98 second ed, will this help? Thanks for all the help Christie

If you are having registry problems start from a command prompt (reboot and press F8) type "scanreg" with out the quote marks. if there is a registry problem this should find it and replace it with a last known working registry... <IMG SRC="smilies/wink.gif" border="0">

HTH