text: how do i turn my cd-drive on? i was having some problems with my laptop back in march and i think that when my uncle was fixing it he turned off the cd-dvd-rom off and i really want to turn it on so i can play the sims. anyone have any ideas? i need it to be pretty simple. i have a dell laptop with xp 2 on it. thanks for any info! it should be on anyway... what has happened no doubt is when he was fixing it he probably disconnected it to get to components underneath and has forgotten to connect it back up again. so you will need to check inside after first right clicking on my computer and selecting manage and then system devices and look to see if the rom drive is lised there. hope this helps.  :-)