BIOS will not recognize the cd-drive. Is it beyond repair? If not, how do I fix it? Thanks, I have no hair to left to pull out agroom

After having no success with the THIRD burner, you should have deduced that its the computer, not the DVD device, that is causing the problem.

Try entering BIOS SETUP, to see if the BIOS recognizes the DVD device.
Check that it is "enabled", not "disabled".

You need to go to ASUS to get a bios update. Since your board only appears to support SATA 1, it probably has the older bios that tops off at about 380mb. drives. (I don't think that a bios update will give you Sata 2 as that is hardware limited)

check if you see any light on the drive, if yes. then the power is there and then the problem is with the data cable of the cd drive. try to repalce the cd drive with another cd drive. if it still doesnot work and if the same cables work with the hard drive, then the cd drive has gone bad. and if the new drive also doesnot work then reinstalling the operating system should fix the problem only and only if it appears in the bios. if it doesnot appear in the bios. then the problem is not of the operating system. then its the motherboard.

Use the windows CD if you have it.

Start the computer and enter the BIOS. Change the 'boot priority' so that the CD drive comes before the HDD. Save your settings and restart.
Insert the windows CD upon startup and press a button when prompted ("press any key to boot from CD"). When the disc goes to install a new copy of windows, it should spot your existing installation, and offer you the chance to repair it. Follow the instructions and see how that goes.

Failing that, enter the windows recovery console and repair the Master Boot Record. If that still doesn't work, your HDD may have kicked the bucket. Can you hear it spinning up?

Assuming the drive is powering-up, you could remove it and use another computer to try and acess the disk as a secondary drive. This would allow you to remove all data from your drive before totally wiping it and trying again from the start. Anything beyond this should really be left to an expert.

Here is the Toshiba official line on that error.
If you've already run through their fixes, you could try using the Ultimate Boot CD to test the hard drive, or run Chkdsk c: /r from the recovery console to attempt to recover any bad sectors
Then consult this link and apply the pertinent fixes to attempt to repair the MBR.
Other possibly helpful links here and here.
I hope this information allows you to resolve this issue. If you need further assistance, please post back with a comment to this thread.
If I've managed to answer your question or solve a problem, please take just a moment to rate this post....thanks!

have not fixed it. Can you fix the title ? I sokld the pontiac. This is about an HP PC. thanks

you may do something check
1) enter bios setup check CD drive is detected or not.
if not detected, you may take out the drive clean the plug and socket then set it back properattely. still not detect in bios so you need change other drive or put your drive to other laptop to make sure whether the drive is ok.
if the bios detected CD drive, that is your OS system does not recognize the drive, you need check your syastem environment maybe some changed, so recovery previous system environment, or reinstall OS.
2) all deal nothing fixed(CD drive good) that is your CD drive interface hardwre problem on the motherbord IO controler logic.
you need find a technician fix it.
hope help you something fixed, please take a rating let me know how much helped you thanks! keep in touch your question

you fit a new hard drove and it is a blank page
of course the bios will not recognize it
you have to get into bios and change the boot sequence from hard drive to cd as first boot preference
shut down the lap top, after loading the cd in the cd unit then restart
the bios will boot from the cd and install the operating system onto the hard drive
When done ypu can get back into bios and reset it to first boot from hard drive

My laptop can not detect video/dvd from the DVD-Rom Drive. How can I fix it?

Download the drive test for the hard drive. Put the drive in your other computer and run the test. If it test good on simple test do the long test. IF IT COMES OUT FINE, Run the Zero program and then try to install the O.S. Check your BIOS settings and make sure everything is set right. You are on the right track. You just did not know how to test the drive. If it is a Toshiba you will not find a hard drive test. You might be able to use the Maxtor or Seagate drive test. Use the windows version if you can. If you can't do any of the test, right click on the drive and check for errors.

Rate me if this helped.