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DVD ROM Drive not recognised and will not write

J. I.

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Posted October 4, 2011 at 10:32AM

The DVD ROM Drive on my daughters computer windows xp is not recognised in my computer window and also will not read. Before she spends any money unnecessary is there any way to determine if the drive is serviceable or unserviceable. If the drive turns out to be serviceable is there any proceedures she can follow/apply to re-instate it so it shows in my computer window and reads. Your help gratefully apreciated.

PS.tHIS IS A DESKTOP COMPUTER                                              Joni
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lotvic

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Posted October 4, 2011 at 11:47AM

DVD ROM = Read Only (you can only read CD/DVDs)

DVD RW = ReWritable (you can burn CD/DVDs as well as read them)

Has the drive worked okay before and only just started to be not recognised?

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Fruit Bat /\0/\

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Posted October 4, 2011 at 2:17PM

No CD/DVD or CD-ROM access is missing error Code 19, Code 31, Code 32, Code 39, or Code 41 Try this if the optical drives are not appearing in My Computer or Device Manager. (This is sometimes caused by the removal of Roxio or other writing software.)

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/XP_CD-DVD-Fix.zip Download XP_CD-DVD-Fix.zip and save this file to your hard drive. Navigate to where you saved it and double click the file to extract the contents. Locate the EXE file you extracted and double click it. A confirmation dialog will appear when the script is done. You may need to reboot for the change to take effect. This utility is only intended for Windows® XP, but also appears to work for Vista and Windows 7. You may need Administrator level access to use this utility. If you do not have Administrator level access, the program will say it is finished, but will not have made any changes.

Similar fixes http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060/ works for W7 Vista or XP http://aumha.org/downloads/cdgone.zip

or manual fix Run regedit and navigate to registry key HKEYLOCALMACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\ {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}. Highlight it and in the right pane, find the Upperfilters and Lowerfilters values. Highlight each one in turn, right click and delete them. Close regedit and restart the computer. If in doubt make a restore point before making changes.

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J. I.

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Posted October 4, 2011 at 6:56PM

Sorry if there was any confusion with my first post. The drive is listed as(IDE DVD-ROM 16X ATA DEVICE (CD-ROM DRIVE) Previously it would read CDs and DVDs. Now it is not reading either and not showing in my computer window. Is there any way to check if the drive is serviceable, if so then the problem would have to be somewhere else. Joni

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J. I.

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Posted October 4, 2011 at 6:56PM

Sorry if there was any confusion with my first post. The drive is listed as(IDE DVD-ROM 16X ATA DEVICE (CD-ROM DRIVE) Previously it would read CDs and DVDs. Now it is not reading either and not showing in my computer window. Is there any way to check if the drive is serviceable, if so then the problem would have to be somewhere else. Joni

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J. I.

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Posted October 4, 2011 at 6:57PM

Sorry if there was any confusion with my first post. The drive is listed as(IDE DVD-ROM 16X ATA DEVICE (CD-ROM DRIVE) Previously it would read CDs and DVDs. Now it is not reading either and not showing in my computer window. Is there any way to check if the drive is serviceable, if so then the problem would have to be somewhere else. Joni

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J. I.

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Posted October 4, 2011 at 6:57PM

Sorry if there was any confusion with my first post. The drive is listed as(IDE DVD-ROM 16X ATA DEVICE (CD-ROM DRIVE) Previously it would read CDs and DVDs. Now it is not reading either and not showing in my computer window. Is there any way to check if the drive is serviceable, if so then the problem would have to be somewhere else. Joni

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Fruit Bat /\0/\

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Posted October 4, 2011 at 7:22PM

not recognised in my computer is the clue here

Is there any way to check if the drive is serviceable

Yes see my previous post above.

if that does not work then there are other possibilities but it means opening the case.

check if DATA cable has worked loose

swap power leads to drive from psu and retry

a new rewriteable DVD drive is less than £20 you can fit it yourself easily just 4 screws and two cables.

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Stuartli

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Posted October 4, 2011 at 10:26PM

If you go to Device Manager and Uninstall the particular drive and then Reboot, Windows will Reinstall the drive and the basic CDROM driver, which is all that is required.

If it doesn't work then, it's most likely that one or both lasers have packed up. As already stated, such drives cost as little as £12 to £15 these days.

You should still be able to find an IDE drive but, if not, IDE to Sata adapters are only around £2 on Amazon.

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J. I.

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Posted October 5, 2011 at 10:30AM

Thanks for all your inputs.I will try stuartli method first and if necessary work my way through the rest. I will not be going to my daughters until this Sunday but will report back to you on the results.

                                                For now THANKS joni
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J. I.

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Posted October 11, 2011 at 9:14AM

Hi. Tried stuartli suggestion first, to my daughter and I surprise it worked first time. We really thought we would have to go to the trouble of buying and installing another drive, thankfully it worked for us. would like to thank everyone for their kind inputs, it was fully appreciated of you all. Thanks joni

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