Latitude D400 stop recognizing the external CD/DVD RW drive

Hi, Silvia:

The most frequent cause of disappearing USB drives is a drive letter conflict. For example, just plugging a flash drive into your laptop can cause this conflict.

Try unplugging all USB mass storage devices, then delete your USB controllers and hubs in device manager. Reboot, allow Windows to reinstall all of the USB controllers and hubs, then plug your external drive back into the same plug it was plugged into before. If it shows up, reassign the drive letter in disk management to a higher letter, such as M, N or O.

Thank you Osprey, I did exactly as you told me and was sure it would work. Curiously it did and it didn't. I have use of one of the USB ports, but not the one that is needed to connect the DVD RW external drive.

What do you think might be the next thing I should try?

Thanks again

Sil

So if I understand correctly, the USB port to which you previously connected the USB drive is not working with any device? Have you tried another port?

I'm sorry that I was not specific as I should have been. This is a D/Bay DVD drive and connects to a D/Bay connector . That doesn't work any more. However neither does the USB port on the back of the laptop. So, anything that is USB has to be connected through the PC card USB port inserted on the PC card slot.
Not all USB devices are recognized by the PC cart ports either.
For instance while it recognoizes the wireless mouse gizmo, it doesn't recognize a wired mouse.
I ran diagnostics again with no results.

my dell d400 stopped recognizing the usb cd drive that came with it too it ended up being a problem with the ac adapter i replaced it and it works fine now

David, thank you. This might very well be the reason, because the power light had been blinking 3 amber 1 green for quite a while.  I had made a "mental  note" to look into it (only that I wanted  to try putting  off spending the money)...Then when this problem began, I realized that the power light had gone out altogether.
I just ordered a new power supply.

I will make sure to let you know. It would be sooooooo good if this puts and end to the problem!

Silvia:

When you say you ran the diagnostics with "no results", obviously you must have gotten a result of some sort. Either everything tested good or something showed up bad.

OK, I just got my new adapter and still the d400 doesn't recognize the CD drive. It doesn't make the little noise when I plug it in either, and while it has power, plug and play doesn't see.