Got a computer which used to work fine - then the dvd/cd drive stopped working. The light comes on ion the drive and I can hear the cd turning etc but the computer doesnt seem to recognise the player.

I thought it might of been the drive itself so I installed 2 new cd drives. Computer doesnt recognise them either I have an external cd drive that attaches via usb but doesnt see that either.

When I go to device manager it has little yellow exclamation marks next tio the 2 cd drives installed.

Anyone got any ideas?

Aye, it's fecked!

Seriously, have you checked the cables? That would be my first check.

Aye that was first thing I checked as well.

But the fact it doesnt recognise an external cd drive attached via usb either suggests to be its something a little more problematic?

I had that exact problem a few years ago and ended up having to get a new drive.
My PC wouldnt see it in explorer and I had the exclamation mark in device manager.

The fact that its not recognising an ext drive is strange.
Maybe a motherboard problem? Im not too sure to be honest.

Reformatting and reinstalling might be difficult if you cant see a drive.

Aye its not the drive thats the problem as I took out the original one when I realised it wasnt recognising it and put in 2 new drives that work fine (as had them in another computer) but this stupid computer just isnae for seeing them!

Have you checked that all the necessary drivers are installed for the drives? If not it's worth checking out.

How do I go about that? And what am I looking for?

The dvd drive I have is a Creative dvd 6630e. I don't ahve the installation cd for it - is there anyway I can download the driver for it and where?

You can normally find drivers on the website of either the PC or drive manufacturer. The device manager should also let you know if there is a driver problem. I would also check the FAQ's section of the manufacturers support site.

Sound advice, sounds almost certainly like an issue with drivers.

My starting point would be your PC manufacturers website because it is multiple drives you have had problems with.

I'd suggest that as well as a potential driver issue, it could also be an issue with the IDE cable or controller (presumably your drives are connected by IDE) I've come to this conclusion as you know there is power going to the drives (there is a separate power connecter that would be unaffected by a failing IDE cable/controller) but no data is being transmitted to or from the device (the IDE cable and controller is how the data is transmitted)

If you're up to it and if you happen to have one kicking about... Try connecting an IDE hard drive into the end of the cable currently plugged into your CD/DVD Drive and see if your BIOS detects the presence of the hard drive on boot.