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Win XP system won't recognize CD/DVD Drive

I have been helping a friend (via long distance) with an XP Pro system that the (IDE) DVD drive stopped appearing in the list of drives.
We have replaced the drive, taken the drive from it's own cable and added it to the hard drive cable (selected slave for that). It still would not recognize the drive.
They plugged an external drive into the system via USB and said it does not see that drive either.
Other than wiping the system and reinstalling XP, does anyone have any idea of what could be causing this problem? I feel it is a Windows issue and not a hardware issue since the hardware has been replaced and connected in mulitple ways. But I could be wrong.
I don't know real specifics but the system is about 14 months old, AMD processor and ASUS motherboard.
I'm stumped (but it doesn't always take much for that to happen)!!
 
Go into device manager & uninstall the IDE controller that the CDROM is connected to (presumably this should be the secondary controller - do not put the CDROM on the same controller as the HDD) then with the CDROM connected properly, reboot the system. The system should reinstall the controller & recognize the CDROM as connected.

If you still do not see the CDROM, go to Administrative Tools - Manage Drives & see that the CDROM is recognized by the system (ie, appears in the list of available drives). If so, mount the drive & assign a suitable drive letter.

Verify that the USB is able to identify a low power device such as a known good jump drive. If it does, the USB port is working.
 
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I used the Microsoft solution first and that one worked. I was prepared to try the Device Manager option but I didn't need to.
Thanks again for the help. I used GoToAssist to remotely fix the problem for my friend in another state.
Technology is fantastic!!!!!!!!
 
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