Expert: Michael Tedeschi - 8/15/2009

Question
Hi: I just received a dvd-rw burner for my Gateway M505 laptop. It is pulled from a new Gateway computer-that's what the salesperson told me. I removed my old cd-rom drive and installed the new dvd drive. As soon as I power the computer on, nothing happens...the dvd drive lights up, the HHD icon blinks for a few seconds, then nothing. I tried hitting the F2 and/or F/10 keys but computer stays on the startup screen...I noted in the BIOS settings on a previous occasion, that my cd-rom drive was listed as the primary master, and the HDD was listed as the secondary master...Could this be the problem, and what can I do to correct it? I was told that all I had to do was remove the old cd drive and replace it with the new dvd-rw drive and there would be no problems...This laptop was serviced a couple of years ago, the motherboard and the cd drive were replaced. Maybe the technician mixed the connectors for primary and secondary..Computer works fine, I just want to have a dvd burner instead of the cd-rom that is in there. What can I do?

Answer
The BIOS setting should make no difference.  

Im confused...

In the beginning you said "As soon as I power the computer on, nothing happens...the dvd drive lights up, the HHD icon blinks for a few seconds, then nothing."

Then at the end you say "Computer works fine"


Which is it?