having trouble with vista recongnizing ibm external dvd device for one i lost the disk that came with it but when i plug it in vista says it has attached the drivers needed but try to use it an it often doesnt even show up as being on computer canot play or write dvds nor cds . there are no model numbers on this device it was inexpensive bought off of ebay but has ibm on the out side case . has two cables that plug into usb it does get power an it flashes on an off while tring to read dvd or cd .any sugestions other then i schould take better care of my install disk would be apreciated i all ready got that advice from my better half thankyou for taking time to at least read my promblem.
Look into the device manager in vista, and what has vista reconsied the drive as?? IBM xxxxxxx ? Let us know Have you looked back at ebay history to see if the drive was advertised with the model number, as then you could google and find the drivers required? I have sent you a pm with an ibm link for drivers all external devices!
it has two usb cabels one i think provides power an the other i think reads but im just guessing. i could be way off thank you for tring to help i do aprciate it
As urie mentioned, no external drive I ever heard of comes with two usb cables; there is no need for having 2! Only thing certain here is that it should come with one usb cable or one usb cable + one power cable. The latter is more common for large external HDDs where more power (i.e. than the USB port can provide) is required. Most likely you are missing the power cable or did they indeed send you 2xUSB cables by mistake. That is probably why the drive is not recognised by Windows. Let me give you an example: I got an HP LaserJet 1000 (printer). It connects via USB and I have its driver installed properly. But if I don't plug the power cable, I get an error that Windows cannot recognise the printer. Almost certainly you do need a power cable here! Check your email history regarding your purchase and tell us the item number so we can try and figure out what make / model is it... I am puzzled as to why there isn't a model number imprinted on the drive. Even the cheapest units I ve come across - they all have some serial / model code. I would check for that again if I was you
i looked it over good no model number i did manage to get it to play a cd but deffanatlly messes my computer up if i put in a dvd movie program stops working an im afraid im gonna mess up the computer . i do have dvd drive on this computer i just bought this so i didnt wear out the one in the lap top . i make copies of movies an not sure how hard that is on the dvd drive. again i thank you for helping im not very litarate when dealing with computers probaply know just enough to mess them up really good.
This is how each and every one of us gets to learn stuff about computers - so don't blame yourself. You will only learn if you stick close to such little things and eventually, from time to time, you will also make mistakes. Learn from those and keep on reading / researching
ok i did look at the dvd player again on ebay an it says comes with 2 usb cabals one is for power other is for data i tryed it with just the data cabel would not play a cd even tho it would run the drive i could hear it an the lite in the door would flash off an on pluged in the power cabal an then it would play the cd . when i bring up device manager it says dvd devices an list HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-T 20 N USB Device. for this external dvd writer also shows my dvd driver thatcame with the lap top . i do apreciate your pataince an i dont actully need this to work at this time i just have it would like to get some use out of it is all but my computer acts like it sure doesnt like it if you know what im saying im worried im gonna ruin my lap top if im not carful.