Laptop won't recognize CDRW drive

[hdnn2000]

For some reasons my Window XP Gateway laptop doen't recognize my CD drive which is working fine for sure. I try to restart the laptop many times and sometimes it does recognize and work then the CD drive letter just disappear later mystery. Could this be a losing connection ? Thanks for any help.

[The Wise Monkey]

How old is the laptop? The most likely solution is, as you thought, a loose connection. If you don't mind taking your laptop apart, you could always open it up and have a look.