# PC doesn't recognise my Blu-ray Writer



## mohtaj

Hello
I bought a Pioneer BDR-S09XLT Blu-ray Writer but it doesn't seem to show up in windows explorer.
Of the four SATA cable slots on my motherboard SATAII0 and SATAII2 are used by my internal Hard Drives (The former being used by the hard drive which holds windows drive and the latter used up by the storage internal hard drive). When I plug the BD writer to SATAII1, my windows 10 boots up till welcome screen and shows a crash screen and it restarts. And when I plug the BD writer into SATAII3 my PC turns off suddenly halfway through booting up.
I unplugged my internal hard drive which I use to store files, just to check how the BD writer would work plugging it instead (in SATAII2). The Windows 10 boots up fine but my BD writer doesn't show up in Windows Explorer.


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## johnb35

What motherboard do you have?  Do you have another pc that you can check this drive in?  If it doesn't show up in explorer in another one that you can assume the drive is faulty.  You did plug in the sata power cable from the power supply?


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## mohtaj

My motherboard is old. It's GIGABYTE GA-945PL-S3

It recognizes the BD writer in boot screen and in here:


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## johnb35

Check device manager to see if maybe a driver is needed or an error has occured.  Another possibility is that there is a registry issue not causing the drive to show up in windows.


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## mohtaj

I've checked  Device Manager already, nothing there. I don't know how to deal with registry things


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## johnb35

So there is nothing listed under cd/dvd drives besides your other drive?  It should also show up in disc management.


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## mohtaj

There is only my DVD-Writer. The BD-Writer isn't listed neither in Device Manager nor in Disk Manager:


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## johnb35

I would say there is an issue with the drive itself.


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## mohtaj

I plugged the BD drive to my cousin's desktop pc and it works fine. There must be something wrong with my motherboard. I'm going to buy new motherboard/CPU/RAM


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## spirit

Do you have any SATA ports disabled on your motherboard? Try a BIOS update or reset the BIOS before you buy new stuff. It could be something that's been mis-configured in the BIOS.


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## mohtaj

spirit said:


> Do you have any SATA ports disabled on your motherboard? Try a BIOS update or reset the BIOS before you buy new stuff. It could be something that's been mis-configured in the BIOS.


How can I reset the BIOS or update it??


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## mohtaj

johnb35 said:


> I would say there is an issue with the drive itself.





spirit said:


> Do you have any SATA ports disabled on your motherboard? Try a BIOS update or reset the BIOS before you buy new stuff. It could be something that's been mis-configured in the BIOS.



I think I have found the problem. My BIOS Version/Date is: Award Software International, Inc. FB 2/12/2007

Do you think this might be the reason causing the problem??


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## johnb35

Check your motherboard to see what revision you have, its usually stamped in the bottom left hand corner.   It will either say 1.0, 2.0 or 3.x.


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## mohtaj

johnb35 said:


> Check your motherboard to see what revision you have, its usually stamped in the bottom left hand corner.   It will either say 1.0, 2.0 or 3.x.


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## mohtaj

johnb35 said:


> Check your motherboard to see what revision you have, its usually stamped in the bottom left hand corner.   It will either say 1.0, 2.0 or 3.x.


It is REV: 3.3


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## johnb35

The latest bios version for that board is FD and you are running FB.  You can try updating the bios to see if that helps.


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## mohtaj

johnb35 said:


> The latest bios version for that board is FD and you are running FB.  You can try updating the bios to see if that helps.


I have downloaded the file but don't know how to update BIOS  
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=2536#bios


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## johnb35

You usually put the file on a usb flash drive and then boot to Qflash and run it that way. 

You can download the manual and look on page 58 and follow the instructions.


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## mohtaj

It is an exe file 0.48 Mb
Where can I download the manual from?


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## johnb35

http://download1.gigabyte.us/Files/Manual/motherboard_manual_ga-945pl-(d)s3_3.x_e.pdf

It is an exe file, but you run it and it extracts the rom file to wherever you want it.  The file you want on your flash drive is labeled 945pls32.fd


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## mohtaj

johnb35 said:


> http://download1.gigabyte.us/Files/Manual/motherboard_manual_ga-945pl-(d)s3_3.x_e.pdf
> 
> It is an exe file, but you run it and it extracts the rom file to wherever you want it.  The file you want on your flash drive is labeled 945pls32.fd


Thanks a lot. Do you think it can help recognise the BD-writer?? The " Latest Update" is for 2007


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## johnb35

It might, can't guarantee it. The bios does recognize it, its just windows that doesn't.


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## mohtaj

I just did. I'm going to attach my BD writer and see what happens *FINGERS CROSSED*


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## mohtaj

johnb35 said:


> It might, can't guarantee it. The bios does recognize it, its just windows that doesn't.


It didn't work


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## johnb35

I just have a feeling its a windows issue then.  Can you post a screenshot of your device manager with the cd/dvd section expanded?


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## mohtaj

johnb35 said:


> I just have a feeling its a windows issue then.  Can you post a screenshot of your device manager with the cd/dvd section expanded?


Sure:


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## johnb35

Try removing the sata cable from your storage drive and attaching it to the blu ray drive and boot up and see what happens. Or have you done that already?


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## mohtaj

johnb35 said:


> Try removing the sata cable from your storage drive and attaching it to the blu ray drive and boot up and see what happens. Or have you done that already?


I did. I have two internal hard drives. one has windows 10 installed on it. and is plugged in to SATAI0. The other internal Hard Drive is in SATAI2. I removed the second internal hard drive and connected its sata cable to my BD-writer. It didn't show up in "This PC" or let's say "My Computer"


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## mohtaj

johnb35 said:


> Try removing the sata cable from your storage drive and attaching it to the blu ray drive and boot up and see what happens. Or have you done that already?


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## johnb35

Try this.  Hard drives in ports 0 and 1 and dvd's in ports 2 and 3.   HDD's on channel 0 and dvd's on channel 1


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## mohtaj

The problem is with SATAII1. I plug either Hard Drive or BD-writer in it and the computer turns off half way through boot-up.
Does the power matter? I mean I attach any of the power cables to my Hard Drive or BD-writer in no particular order
By the way my Pioneer DVD-writer is old and does not have SATA cable


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## johnb35

What mode is your sata controller in?  IDE or AHCI?  Should be in AHCI.


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## mohtaj

johnb35 said:


> What mode is your sata controller in?  IDE or AHCI?  Should be in AHCI.


I don't know where to check that or how to change them 
I'm looking on the internet, it looks risky to change the mode


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## spirit

mohtaj said:


> I don't know where to check that or how to change them
> I'm looking on the internet, it looks risky to change the mode


You go into the BIOS and look under the SATA options.

If it's in IDE you need to put it into AHCI but then you will need to reinstall Windows because Windows won't be able to boot (unless you put it back to IDE).


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## mohtaj

Cant find such a thing as "SATA options" in BIOS


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## mohtaj

spirit said:


> You go into the BIOS and look under the SATA options.
> 
> If it's in IDE you need to put it into AHCI but then you will need to reinstall Windows because Windows won't be able to boot (unless you put it back to IDE).


Do u mean in "Advanced BIOS features"? There's nothing like what u said there


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## mohtaj

I guess my motherboard doesn't support AHCI. That's why I don't see anything labeled AHCI anywhere in BIOS


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## spirit

mohtaj said:


> Do u mean in "Advanced BIOS features"? There's nothing like what u said there


It will be there somewhere. Might be under Advanced or Chipset or Controllers or something.


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## mohtaj

I'll check it right away, I'll take a picture of every sub-menu and will post it here shortly


spirit said:


> It will be there somewhere. Might be under Advanced or Chipset or Controllers or something.


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## mohtaj

spirit said:


> It will be there somewhere. Might be under Advanced or Chipset or Controllers or something.


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## johnb35

Change the sata mode to auto.  Reboot and see if windows detects the blu ray.  That board doesn't support AHCI so try what I suggested.


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## mohtaj

Problem solved -> I put the SATA mode to "Enhanced". Two of my SATA ports had been disabled, before. But now all SATA ports are working fine
Thanks for the help everyone who replied to my thread


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