MS 4.30 shows no CD drive

[ddouglass]

Thanks Dave.

[dclark]

After investigation, it appears that Windows 7's Power Options have been set for your computer to turn off your optical drive if not in use. This was the case on my laptop. If your optical drives are turned off, then they are not available or recognized by Microstudio.

To change this using the Windows 7 Control Panel, follow these steps:

• Click the Windows icon on your Task Bar
• Open the "Control Panel"
• Click on "System and Security"
• Click on "Power Options"
• If you have it, click on "Power Manager" in the left-hand list. Otherwise, you can adjust the settings in the main window.

My laptop is a Lenovo. Lenovo supplies their own version of Power Manager. This is where I made the change necessary to leave the optical (CD/DVD) drive powered on at all times. When I tried to make the change using Windows, the changes were ignored.

There are several ways in the Lenovo Power Manager to make this change:

• Move the slider all the way to the left toward "High Performance".
• Switch to "Advanced", and in the "System Settings", there are settings for "Automatic optical drive power off". These need to be set to "Disabled".
• Click the "Battery Stretch" button. If you enable this, you need to click off the "Disable optical drive" check box.

Since the manufacturers will supply software like this, most likely at this point you will have to refer to your owner's manual that came with your particular computer. Please post back here with your results, so that others can benefit from what you learn. Thanks!

[CochrellGary]

Here is what I have found so far.
If I connect an external CD drive (PLEXTOR PX-708A)
and disable the tower CD drive (ATAP iHS124 Y ATA Device)
Microstudio CD buttons become active.
When I reactivate the tower CD drive Microstudio CD
buttons become ghosted out. (the PLEXTOR was left on line).

[ddouglass]

Gary check what DClark said in his post. Even on desktop computers with XP I have found that the power options have been set for drives, both hard and cd, to shutdown when not in use. This is not desired for using Hoster and many other programs.

[CochrellGary]

I've checked and double checked all power settings and options.
Nothing has changed.