(SOLVED) dvd drive suddenly M.I.A. after blackout

Hi there and thanks beforehand

I have on my hands and old 2006 laptop from a relative with ( yes, i was the one who recommended it ) Zorin 32 bits Ultimate installed .
Everything went great and he was delighted to feel his old laptop come back to life after so many years using windows ... until some days ago the laptop went through a blackout while plugged .

Everything works fine, but the dvd drive can no longer be mounted nor it's even visible .

Put a cd in and it spins, makes some noises, etc... so initially it should work.

Tried this on the terminal :

Code:

sudo lshw -C disk

but there's no "*-cdrom" part.

What should i do now ?

Thanks again

Hi,

take the drive out, by that I mean completely disconnect it from the PC, boot the PC once, then shut it down and re-insert the drive; reboot and see if it works again!.

If the PC was plugged in to the mains with no battery power as backup, when the power outage took place, it may have damaged the circuitry?.

Can you please show to m ethe contents of:

Code:

sudo gedit /etc/fstab

and

Code:

sudo blkid

Also, what files can you find inside /dev ?

Wolfman wrote:Hi,

take the drive out, by that I mean completely disconnect it from the PC, boot the PC once, then shut it down and re-insert the drive; reboot and see if it works again!.

If the PC was plugged in to the mains with no battery power as backup, when the power outage took place, it may have damaged the circuitry?.

Hi there

Hmmm.... since it's a laptop it'll take me some time ( neeed to grab a small screwdriver first, not at home right now ) so will have to start with other options for the time being.

However, it's nice you mentioned it ... somehow, as years pass, can't bring myself to see laptops in the same lite as traditiional desktop computers

Thanks !

madvinegar wrote:Can you please show to m ethe contents of:

Code:

sudo gedit /etc/fstab

Of course, here we go:

Code:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=b5ae52b8-d4df-482d-9093-d440ffa05417 /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=8da131aa-584f-4705-8836-a41b3186a095 none            swap    sw              0       0

Plus this message on the terminal:

Code:

** (gedit:7460): WARNING **: Can't load fallback CSS resource: Failed to import: The resource at '/org/gnome/adwaita/gtk-fallback.css' does xnot exist

and

Code:

sudo blkid

Here it is:

Code:

/dev/sda1: UUID="b5ae52b8-d4df-482d-9093-d440ffa05417" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda5: UUID="8da131aa-584f-4705-8836-a41b3186a095" TYPE="swap"

Also, what files can you find inside /dev ?

ls /dev shows this :

Code:

agpgart          mcelog              sda5      tty31  tty62      ttyS6
autofs           mem                 sg0       tty32  tty63      ttyS7
block            net                 shm       tty33  tty7       ttyS8
bsg              network_latency     snapshot  tty34  tty8       ttyS9
btrfs-control    network_throughput  snd       tty35  tty9       uhid
bus              null                stderr    tty36  ttyprintk  uinput
char             port                stdin     tty37  ttyS0      urandom
console          ppp                 stdout    tty38  ttyS1      v4l
core             psaux               tty       tty39  ttyS10     vboxdrv
cpu              ptmx                tty0      tty4   ttyS11     vboxdrvu
cpu_dma_latency  pts                 tty1      tty40  ttyS12     vboxnetctl
cuse             ram0                tty10     tty41  ttyS13     vboxusb
disk             ram1                tty11     tty42  ttyS14     vcs
dri              ram10               tty12     tty43  ttyS15     vcs1
ecryptfs         ram11               tty13     tty44  ttyS16     vcs2
fb0              ram12               tty14     tty45  ttyS17     vcs3
fd               ram13               tty15     tty46  ttyS18     vcs4
full             ram14               tty16     tty47  ttyS19     vcs5
fuse             ram15               tty17     tty48  ttyS2      vcs6
fw0              ram2                tty18     tty49  ttyS20     vcs7
hpet             ram3                tty19     tty5   ttyS21     vcsa
input            ram4                tty2      tty50  ttyS22     vcsa1
kmsg             ram5                tty20     tty51  ttyS23     vcsa2
log              ram6                tty21     tty52  ttyS24     vcsa3
loop0            ram7                tty22     tty53  ttyS25     vcsa4
loop1            ram8                tty23     tty54  ttyS26     vcsa5
loop2            ram9                tty24     tty55  ttyS27     vcsa6
loop3            random              tty25     tty56  ttyS28     vcsa7
loop4            rfkill              tty26     tty57  ttyS29     vga_arbiter
loop5            rtc                 tty27     tty58  ttyS3      vhci
loop6            rtc0                tty28     tty59  ttyS30     vhost-net
loop7            sda                 tty29     tty6   ttyS31     video0
loop-control     sda1                tty3      tty60  ttyS4      zero
mapper           sda2                tty30     tty61  ttyS5

Thanks. As I suspected, your cdrom entry has been deleted from the fstab.
Can you also see if there is a cdrom entry inside /media and let me know?

Code:

ls /media/cdrom

Put a CD rom in the drive and run:

Code:

mount /cdrom

madvinegar wrote:Thanks. As I suspected, your cdrom entry has been deleted from the fstab.
Can you also see if there is a cdrom entry inside /media and let me know?

Code:

ls /media/cdrom

Done!

Code:

ls: cannot access /media/cdrom: No such file or directory

What's next then ?

Thanks a ton !

Put a CD rom in the drive and run:


mount /cdrom

If you get errors or get no reply, leave the CD rom inside the drive and do the following:

Code:

sudo mkdir /media/cdrom
sudo mount /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom

Then run again

Code:

ls /media/cdrom

Do you see the contents of the CD ?

madvinegar wrote:Put a CD rom in the drive and run:


mount /cdrom

Done !

Code:

mount: can't find /cdrom in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab

madvinegar wrote:If you get errors or get no reply, leave the CD rom inside the drive and do the following:

Code:

sudo mkdir /media/cdrom
sudo mount /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom

Just did and ...

Code:

mount: special device /dev/cdrom does not exist

So couldn't go further ...

Then run again

Code:

ls /media/cdrom

Do you see the contents of the CD ?

Hi,

did you try what I suggested?. There is a latch under the laptop to release the DVD drive, it isn't hard to do!.

Ok, try something else.

Run

Code:

sudo gedit /etc/fstab

At the end of the file add the line

Code:

/dev/cdrom  /media/cdrom   auto ro,noauto,user,exec  0 0

Save and exit.

Then run again

Code:

mount /cdrom

Important Note: If again you get an error message, do not reboot. Delete the line we added in fstab and then save and exit before rebooting.

Wolfman wrote:Hi,

did you try what I suggested?. There is a latch under the laptop to release the DVD drive, it isn't hard to do!.

And here i thought i needed to take a smaller screwdriver to take it off ... and just after reading your line realized you're absolutely right ... not even a latch or anything, just pulled it off and that's it

So yes, finally tried what you suggested in the first place ... and worked exactly as you predicted . Finally ! Thanks a ton for your help, learned something new today.

Best regards

madvinegar wrote:Ok, try something else.

Run

Code:

sudo gedit /etc/fstab

At the end of the file add the line

Code:

/dev/cdrom  /media/cdrom   auto ro,noauto,user,exec  0 0

Save and exit.

Then run again

Code:

mount /cdrom

Important Note: If again you get an error message, do not reboot. Delete the line we added in fstab and then save and exit before rebooting.

Finally fixed as you can read above. Thanks a zillion for your help & time and sorry i didn't realize earlier the drive would come off so easily ... i feel kinda stupid and bad for have you going at it again & again, i'm deeply sorry .

Wasn't everything in vain anyways, will take note of everything you posted here as i tend to note down all this little bits & pieces i gather as i learn a little more day by day.

Thanks again

Cheers !

Hi,

no problem, will mark as solved!.