DVD Writer Dissapeared?

[Simmo180]

I switched on my PC today and my DVD Writer has just dissapeared?

It was installed about 18 months and has always worked fine, then for some reason today my PC just doesnt recognise that it is there?

I have tried putting disc's in and also mapping to the drive through windows, but its like its not conncected. I have opened the machine and checked the connections are still in place and they are.

Has it just died on me?

[handyguy]

What kind of computer?

What OS?

What kind of writer?

DId you try Restore, to see if that corrects it, assuming you have a windows computer.

[doorman]

try rebooting a couple of times---ive seen the same thing in the past---reboot usually sorts the prob

cheers doorman

[rkr1958]

Is the drive completely gone? Is it recognized in your bios? (I get to my bios during bootup by hitting F2). What do things look like under device manager? Does it see your DVD drive there? If so, does it list the controllers as corrupted? If you boot to DOS w/CD & DVD drivers does the drive work?

My wife lost her DVD/CDRW drive under windows. It was recognized in the BIOS and it worked in DOS mode. Device manager saw it but listed the controllers as corrupted. Even after uninstalling and letting Window reinstall the controller they still came up as corrupted. I found a registry hack that fixed the problem. However, this may not be your issue. We need more information about your situation.

[lordsmurf]

Did you install any new burning software?

[oldandinthe way]

If you are running XP I suggest you restore the system to its state on an earlier data when the drive was recognized.

Installing new burning software, new codecs or Windows Media Player 10 among other programs can cause such symptoms.

[nzo]

This one has worked for me a number of times in XPHome:

- Copy the info between the dotted lines to a txt file:

-----------------------------------------------

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}]
"UpperFilters"=-
"LowerFilters"=-

------------------------------------------------

- Save the txt file as: NoFilter.reg

- Right click this file and choose 'merge'

- Reboot

This should restore your missing cd/dvd drive.

Cheers

-

[nzo]

I meant to add:

If the above does not work for you, go here

and search for cdgone and d/l it. Follow instructions on the site.

Note: This is only for XP.

[Simmo180]

Thanks for the replies.

I am running Windows XP on my machine.

I have tried the DVD Drive in another machine and it works fine.

I then connected it back to my machine and did a system restore for a couple of days before I last used the drive successfully. This worked and I could see and use the DVD drive, but when I shut the machine down and then rebooted, the DVD drive has dissapeared again!

I have since tried doing 2 system restores for dates even futher back and this now does not work. I can not get the drive back.

I recently re-newed my subscription for Mcafee Anti-Virus software and that downloaded a load of new files, do you think this could have caused this problem? I have heard about anti-virus software screwing up PC's.

I might try that patch that you have suggested nzo, you have obviously had this problem more than once then? Do you know what causes it?

[nzo]

Hi Simmo180
I'd like to be able to say I know what causes it, but I don't. If it was working before and now it doesn't, then something has changed and that change is most probably in the vast territory of the XP registry.

Yes, this particular 'burner goes invisible' problem has happened here a number of times. Now I take the shortest route to what works, instead of screwing around endlessly trying to find what caused it. That short registry script has done the job for me every time.

If you feel uncertain about running it, back up your registry first. Don't forget to reboot after running it.

Good luck

[rkr1958]

If you go to device manage ... does it see your drive there? Is so, does it had a yellow exclaimation mark by the drive and list the drivers as corrupted? If so, I have a registry hack you might wish to try ... this worked like a charm and got my wife's CDRW/DVD-ROM drive back.

[nelson133]

This has happened to me twice and both times it was an elctronics failure in the drive itself. I found this by swapping drives between computers and the unresponsive ones didn't work in any machine. With the current replacement costs (under $40 from Newegg.com I wouldn't spend alot of time trying to get it to work. Nyah Levi