PC hardware forum: My PC stopped recognizing both my DVD and CD drives, help!

Did you remove old tool for using the DVD an CD device? In such a case you have to download fro sony a patch that fix it. I had it when I change from Roxio to Nero.Arik

Had the same problem awhile back. Uninstalled I-tunes and behold, my drives returned. It's worth a try if you have I-tunes installed.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\4D36E965-E325-11 CE-BFC1-08002BE10318

Here's the info - hope its readable - I don't have a link to the site.


After you remove either compact disc (CD) recording software or other software from your computer, your computer may exhibit the following behavior: In My Computer, there is no access to your CD-ROMs.
In Device Manager, the following error message appears in connection with any CD-ROM device that is part of your computer system:
The device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device (Code 31).
Device Manager displays the following error message:
A driver for this device was not required, and has been disabled (Code 32 or Code 31).
You may also receive an error Code 39 message that indicates that the driver is corrupted.


Device Manager displays the following error Code 19 message, which means that the registry returned some unknown result:
Your registry might be corrupted. (Code 19)
You may also receive the following error message:
Windows successfully loaded the device driver for this hardware but cannot find the hardware device. (Code 41)

RESOLUTION
WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

To resolve this behavior, follow these steps: 1. Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).
2. Locate the UpperFilters value under the following key in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
3. On the Edit menu, click Delete, and then click OK.
4. Locate the LowerFilters value under the same key in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
5. On the Edit menu, click Delete, and then click OK.
6. Quit Registry Editor.NOTE: After you remove the Upperfilters value and the Lowerfilters value, if you notice lost functionality in a particular program, such as CD recording software, you may need to reinstall that software. If the problem recurs, consult with the software vendor for assistance.


7. Restart your computer.

Had same issue as Gary O.

I had already done above, and got the external USB drive to work, but now windows is not seeing the internal drive, this is not as a result of this fix, at least I don't think it is..

I am now setting to work getting the internal drive to be "Visible" to windows, if others have found this manifestation as a result of editing the registry look back here soon, I hope to have resolved my new issue and will post solution..

And thanks bikato

. Tip & How To about PC Laptops CD-DVD drive is not detecting/working Posted by Amrendra Kumar Singh on Friday, September 16, 2011 Click Start button, type Device Manager in the Start search box and hit enter key. Device Manager window opens. Expand Cd-Dvd Rom devices. You will find Cd-Dvd driver listed here with yellow ! mark. Right click on the driver and select uninstall. It will get disappeared now. Now minimize the Device Manager. Click Start, type regedit in the start search box and hit enter key. Registry editor opens. Please locate then expand following subkeys : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SYSTEM CurrentControlSet Control Class Now please select the following entry through cursor. {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} Now look for UpperFilter or LowerFilter or both in the right pane. Right click on UpperFilter and/or LowerFilter and delete them. Press F5 key once and close the registry editor. Maximize the Device manager now. Click Action menu at top of Device Manager then click Scan for hardware changes. It will reload the Cd-Dvd driver without yellow ! mark and the issue is resolved.

Thank you, wdavis79. I followed those steps and my laptop is now recognizing CDs/DVDs again!

After I deleated I Tunes from my computer I loss access to my CD/DVD player. I redownloaded I Tunes and low & behold...I got access back.
I have a Dell. Have you recently deleated anything?

it works thank you !

I would disconnect the two drives and reboot. Make sure that they don't show up in the Device manager. Then I would reconnect one at a time and see if Windows XP recognizes the drive and if it works. If so, reconnect the other drive and see if the same happens.

Try taking out the two drives and checking which one is the master. Because the controller on this drive is controlling both, it may be defective. Set the slave drive as the master and reinstall only this drive. Boot you system and check to see if it recognizes the drive. Other than driver or Bios problems this is one of the isolation methods I would try.

Good Luck !!!

You would have to define not "recognizing" drives. One problem I've run into recently was my computer not allowing me to open the drives but the link to each drive was visible in the "My Computer" window. For some reason a new windows update or who knows what is trying to autoplay all of my drives when I double click them. To side-step this issue you just right click on the drive instead and click on "Explore." If your computer is not booting up at all then you definitely have a more serious problem. Please provide more details or error messages and someone may be able to give you a better answer. Hope I could help.

I had something similar happen to me a couple of weeks ago and had a hard time trying to figure it out. A techie friend of mine told me it had something to do with the upper and lower filters in the registry. A trick that he employed in the past was to install a piece of software that would employ the use of the DVD. In my case I simply installed Nero's trial version and my DVD was back and functioning. It gave me an error window along the way that had something to do with these filters.

I am not one to try and putz with the registry but if you do an internet search for upperfilters you will find links that may direct you to the solution. One such link is http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060 .

I have that machine...and usually like it. Since both drives went away together I'm highly suspicious that it's hardware, not windows for a change. You'll need to open the case. If you are not comfortable with that perhaps you have a friend who isn't. The easiest possiblity is that the ide cable came loose from the motherboard. Both optical drives are on the secondary ide channel. If it is securely socketed on the main board, check each drive. Depending on how they are configured one disconnect can disable both. Next would be to confirm that the power connectors are firmly inserted. They rarely come loose. You should have a spare 5 connector power pigtail. If nothing has worked so far, carefully remove the power from the top drive and insert the "spare". Be sure to put the color codes the same or the drive will be toast. If that does not work, there is a tiny chance that both drives failed. Connecting a known good ide drive set to master to the cable end connector. If we're still no go, take it to a shop...I would suspect the mainboard has a problem.

The first thing I would check is to make sure that the data cable that connects both drives to the motherboard is properly seated at all three places.
Since the only things common to both drives are the data cable and the motherboard connector, check there first.
You might also want to check the BIOS settings to make sure that nothing has changed.

Good luck!

Dave