My DVD drive doesn't show up from time to time

[DGuller]

It has been months since I had a problem, so I'm overdue.  Now my DVD drive has the second episode of disappearing.  While my PC is on, I see the hard drive light lit up all the time, and My Computer doesn't show the DVD drive.  If I switch my computer off, my computer doesn't restart.  On the BIOS boot-up screen, where it shows the names of the drives connected to my computer, I see garbage characters where my DVD drive is, at which point the computer halts. 

I wonder what's the source of the trouble.  Is my DVD drive going bad, or is the problem with my motherboard.  Any opinions?

[DontSayBanana]

First, have you checked the cable for creep and made sure the ribbon's securely attached at both ends?

It sounds like a problem with 1) the physical connection, 2) the DVD drive's firmware or 3) the BIOS corrupting ATAPI information.

[DGuller]

I plugged the SATA cable into a different socket on the motherboard, and the problem seems to have gone away, for now anyway.

[Josquius]

I had a problem not too long ago where my dvd drive wasn't showing up at all ever, I replaced the cable and it started working totally fine.
So yeah.
You shoudl hope its just luck that your changing has fixed it as having a broken cable is a lot worse than a broken mb...

[DGuller]

Why is it worse?  Isn't the cable a whole lot cheaper and easier to replace than the mobo?

[Josquius]

Why is it worse?  Isn't the cable a whole lot cheaper and easier to replace than the mobo?

Yes.
Brain-hand disagreement,