Hi there everyone.
I've got a plextor drive which has disappeared from my computer in windows 98SE! Its still in my machine and still works fine in my XP partition but its defunt in 98.
I tried removing it from the device manager in 98 to see if it would re-detect it but now it just lists as "CD-ROM" in device manager.

Anyone got any ideas?

The Plextor burner should show up in the CD-ROM section of Device Manager. That is normal.

Win98SE requires a valid ASPI layer to communicate with your burner. It may have been corrupted. Go to Cyrus Troy's Web Site (http://www.cyrus.troy.btinternet.co.uk/downloads.htm) and download Force ASPI and ASPI Check.

Running aspichk.exe will confirm that the ASPI layer is not properly installed. If so, unzip Force ASPI and read the instructions in Index.htm. Follow the recommendations for installing the ASPI layer and then recheck the correct installation with aspichk.exe.

Originally posted by Inertia
The Plextor burner should show up in the CD-ROM section of Device Manager. That is normal.


I think I didnt make myself clear...
The drive is indeed listed under the CDrom section of device manager but it is only listed as a "CD-ROM" unit. Whereas the DVD drive is correctly identified.

In the XP partition of both drives are correctly identified and working...

Since my first post I tried installing ForceASPI and this made no difference what so ever (although it did say the files already there were corrupt). I then booted to XP and updated the firmware of the plex to 1.02. I rebooted back to 98 and the CD drive is now there. Clone CD identifies the drive correctly (it seems by looking at the log file, havent tried burning yet) but in device manager its still listed as "CD-ROM" under the CDROM section.

Can you or anyone else cast any light on this?

OK, I had a similar problem when I upgraded my test machine. If you still have the Plextor Manager 2000 that came with your Plexy burner (a BIG assumption on my part), try re-installing PM2000.

For me, this made the Plexy icon come back and I was able to reassign the drive letter afterwards.

HTH

If it works now, it's because ForceASPI fixed it. It is necessary to reboot before the updated drivers take effect and work.

If the Plextor is not reported correctly in Device Manager, I would suspect some interaction with your dual boot setup.

You could try removing it from Device Manager again, but don't reboot. Instead, go to the Add New Hardware wizard in Control Panel and see if you can manually detect and install the Plextor.