CD/DVD drive disappeared

Hello, and thank you in advance for your time, and help.

I am using XP on a Dell Latitude, D630.
I have Avg for antivirus, and also use Wisecare for various things.

A couple days ago I went to burn a disc, and realized that my cd/dvd drive is missing.

*I've done a hard reset.

*I've removed the CD ROM drive, checked it over, it seeeeems fine, though that means nothing I know, and put it back in pc.

*The CD Rom does open and close, lights up etc.

*It does not show up under My Computer.

*The DVD/CD-ROM does not show up in Disk management.

*The DVD/CD-ROM drive did not show in device manager, even when I clicked show hidden devices, until I used command prompt:

set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
start devmgmt.msc
(Device Manager starts).
Click: View/Show Hidden Devices.
*upon advice I stumbled across on the web, I located my CD/DVD Disk this way, and uninstalled it, as the website stated it would reinstall on restart. It did not. Thus, even when I use those command prompts now to locate the DVD/CD-ROM in device manager, the dvd writer doesn't show anymore under it anymore.
*Again, following info on the web, I went into my registry and deleted the upper filters, there were no lower filters, and rebooted. Again, nothing.
*I have used Diskpart, list disk, in cmd and only my hard drive, c:/ shows.
*No viruses have been found on my pc, and spybot came up with nothing either.
*I downloaded cdgone, which game me these registry files, and I merged them with my registry:
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}]
"UpperFilters"=-
"LowerFilters"=-
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdr4_2K]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdralw2k]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdudf]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\UdfReadr]
and
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\regfile\shell]
@="edit"
but nothing has changed and the upper nor lower filters are showing up in the registry still.


*This is what my registry shows: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
*I downloaded XP_CD-DVD-Fix.exe and ran it, rebooted. Still nothing.
I am at my wits end, any help will be so greatly appreciated. I understand that perhaps there is something wrong with my Disk drive, but I am hesitant to purchase another yet, as this is my husbands work pc, and we would have to go thru his company to do so...which is not good, and I want to be sure I've exhausted all efforts and options before we do that...
Thank you, and if I have left any necessary info out, please let me know!
Truly,
J

 

Hi and welcome to CHF.
Having read through your post I think you have already covered most options.
Though not a cure in itself, it might give a clue and that is a small system analytical software called Speccy. it basically searches all of your system and can give useful information. We usually use it to see system temperatures, but in this case it can show us if the CD/DVD drive can be found on the system as it will list it if it can.

It is free, and can be downloaded from here=

http://www.piriform.com/speccy

Once downloaded and installed, it may offer to open, but if not, open it.
If the CD/DVD drive can be found on the system it will show it as an "Optical Drive". A click on the drive will show more details.

If it doesn't show up in Speccy, my own view is that it is duff and requires replacement, though other members may have other options to look for first.

If indeed it is duff, it should be returned to the company, as being owned by them and not you, it should be their responsibility to repair, or if required, replace the entire notebook.

if it has to go back to the company, make sure you remove any personal details if any.

Nev.

 

Thank you Nev. I ran Speccy and it could not detect the disk. I assume at this point its "fried" and will be having the drive replaced. I just wanted to be sure I'd tried everything, Ii've read about others having this same problem and even a new CD drive didn't solve the problem..but at this point, that's the next step.

I really appreciate your help. Thank you!!
-Jessa

 

One more point if I may...

You said that you removed the drive and checked it over. I assume that this means that you shut down and cut power to the system and physically removed the drive. If that is the case the procedure really didn't do anything.

Since the drive does not show in Device Manager I would open it up again and remove power and data cables from the drive. If it is a socket plug type you would have to remove the drive again. With the drive disconnected boot the system to Windows and then shut down. This should effectively uninstall the drive. Now reconnect the drive and boot again. This should allow Windows to re-install drivers for the drive.

As a note to the above, if your command prompt entries still hold and the drive is visible in Device Manager, right click on the drive's entry and select to uninstall or remove... I don't remember XP's wording. You can try this before physically disconnecting the drive and then re-booting to, again, let Windows re-install drivers. Personally, with the steps you have already taken, I'd do the Device Manager bit to remove and then still physically remove the drive and re-boot. Attach the drive again and boot.

 

Thank you so much Jaylach! It worked. It didn't take the first time, so I tried the entire process again (removing the drive physically. rebooting. replacing the drive. rebooting) and it worked! I threw a disk in just to be sure, and everything is back to normal. I no longer have to use the command prompts stated in my OP to see the CD/DVD drive..its just there in device manager like its supposed to be.

Thank you again, for your time and help!

Truly,
Jessa

 

Glad to be of service.

The usual first step in any such hardware issue is to remove the device in Device Manager and re-boot. Since your drive did not want to show in Device Manager the process needed to be a little more extreme.