My computer no longer recognizes my cd drive or even brand new dvd drive. It
says it has sucessfully loaded the device driver but cannot find the hardware
device, code 41. I have tried the troubleshooter, updating the driver,
checking the conections, uninstalling / reinstalling the device. Bought a new
DVD drive (good enough reason) but it has the exact same message. Any ideas
on what else I could try before having to pay the boffins to have a look?

Andrew wrote:
> My computer no longer recognizes my cd drive or even brand new dvd
> drive. It says it has sucessfully loaded the device driver but cannot
> find the hardware device, code 41. I have tried the troubleshooter,
> updating the driver, checking the conections, uninstalling /
> reinstalling the device. Bought a new DVD drive (good enough reason)
> but it has the exact same message. Any ideas on what else I could try
> before having to pay the boffins to have a look?

Do NOT be afraid of the registry hack here.
It is SAFE and has helped MANY people.
Respect the registry, don't fear it.

1) Log on with Administrative Privileges

2) Open the Registry Editor:
a) Go to Start then select Run.
b) Type regedit and click OK.

3) Backup you registry by:
a) Highlight My Computer by clicking on it once.
b) Click File (Windows XP) or Registry (Windows 2000), then Export
Registry File.
c) Select export range All; to ensure your entire registry is backed up
completely.
d) Select where you would like to save this backup, name the File, and
Click on the SAVE button.

4) Remove the Upperfilters and Lowerfilters values:
a) Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\
{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
b) Highlight this key by left clicking on it once.
c) On the right hand side delete the values Upperfilters and Lowerfilters.

5) Restart your computer.



Or try this:

http://www.dougknox.com/

Select 'Windows Utilities' and scroll down to 'Restore CD/DVD drives to
Windows Explorer.'
Perhaps his utility will do the trick. =)

--
<- Shenan ->
--
The information is provided "as is", it is suggested you research for
yourself before you take any advice - you are the one ultimately
responsible for your actions/problems/solutions. Know what you are
getting into before you jump in with both feet.

>> _new_ dvd drive <<

That statement would make me suggest that you re-open the computer and
check;

ribbon cable connections (seated, pin one correct?)

power cable

disk drive jumper settings... on ide, one must be master and one must be
slave and only two devices per ide connector.

If this is possibly the problem, the installation guide that came with
the new dvd should be helpful.

hth,
Beverly Howard

Beverley,
My cd burner suddenly stopped working with this problem first. I thought it
might be the drive itself, but evidently wasn't, so I then bought the dvd
Burner. However, I have now noticed when I start the computer, a message
states that a 80 pin cable is not installed on the secondary ide. I hadn't at
that stage removed it from it's socket where it was previously happily
working. I have set up the master / secondary jumpers and removed and
reseated the cable connections. I did fix it for a while by doing a system
restore to 1 month previous, so am sure connections are right, but the
problem has now returned. I am unsure if it originally occurred when I was
deleting some programs or when I installed some windows updates. As it
returned when I was installing windows updates again I am now suspicious
about them and will restore windows to an earlier time again. I do see in
this forum a number of posts with quite similar problems with disappearing cd
/ dvd drives.
Thanks
Andrew

"Beverly Howard [Ms-MVP/MobileDev]" wrote:

> >> _new_ dvd drive <<
>
> That statement would make me suggest that you re-open the computer and
> check;
>
> ribbon cable connections (seated, pin one correct?)
>
> power cable
>
> disk drive jumper settings... on ide, one must be master and one must be
> slave and only two devices per ide connector.
>
> If this is possibly the problem, the installation guide that came with
> the new dvd should be helpful.
>
> hth,
> Beverly Howard
>

>> However, I have now noticed when I start the computer, a message
states that a 80 pin cable is not installed on the secondary ide. <<

At this point, I would suggest finding someone who is experienced with
hardware installtions to work with you to diagnose this... the ability
to "see" the components makes this difficult to do via newsgroup.

Here is a list of items I would check;

bios settings

bios drive discovery

bent/broken ribbon connector pins

power connectors fully seated

power connector pin(s) pushed out

reversed connectors (trace "pin 1" from connector to connector)

connector offset left/right

bad ribbon cable

using a "cable select" cable that conflicts with jumper

jumper settings (both drives)

power supply voltages

jumpers on main board???

Beverly Howard [MS MVP-Mobile Devices]

Andrew wrote:
> My cd burner suddenly stopped working with this problem first. I
> thought it might be the drive itself, but evidently wasn't, so I then
> bought the dvd Burner. However, I have now noticed when I start the
> computer, a message states that a 80 pin cable is not installed on
> the secondary ide. I hadn't at that stage removed it from it's socket
> where it was previously happily working. I have set up the master /
> secondary jumpers and removed and reseated the cable connections. I
> did fix it for a while by doing a system restore to 1 month previous,
> so am sure connections are right, but the problem has now returned. I
> am unsure if it originally occurred when I was deleting some programs
> or when I installed some windows updates. As it returned when I was
> installing windows updates again I am now suspicious about them and
> will restore windows to an earlier time again. I do see in this forum
> a number of posts with quite similar problems with disappearing cd /
> dvd drives.

Did you ever try the registry hack I posted?

--
<- Shenan ->
--
The information is provided "as is", it is suggested you research for
yourself before you take any advice - you are the one ultimately
responsible for your actions/problems/solutions. Know what you are
getting into before you jump in with both feet.

No Shenan I haven't yet.
It might be up soon though.
I now have the drives working by uninstalling(restore Me) / reinstalling
windows XP, but the 80 pin cable message still appears on start up. How it
cannot recognise the cable but can read the cd / dvd drives connected on the
cable is beyond me. I will do a proper physical check of the connections
again beverley, and then continue to keep loading my software back on as
windows wouldn't let me upgrade from my restored ME edition. So had to do a
clean install and now nothing is recognised even though the program files are
in there.
Thanks for your help anyway.
Andrew

"Shenan Stanley" wrote:

> Andrew wrote:
> > My cd burner suddenly stopped working with this problem first. I
> > thought it might be the drive itself, but evidently wasn't, so I then
> > bought the dvd Burner. However, I have now noticed when I start the
> > computer, a message states that a 80 pin cable is not installed on
> > the secondary ide. I hadn't at that stage removed it from it's socket
> > where it was previously happily working. I have set up the master /
> > secondary jumpers and removed and reseated the cable connections. I
> > did fix it for a while by doing a system restore to 1 month previous,
> > so am sure connections are right, but the problem has now returned. I
> > am unsure if it originally occurred when I was deleting some programs
> > or when I installed some windows updates. As it returned when I was
> > installing windows updates again I am now suspicious about them and
> > will restore windows to an earlier time again. I do see in this forum
> > a number of posts with quite similar problems with disappearing cd /
> > dvd drives.
>
> Did you ever try the registry hack I posted?
>
> --
> <- Shenan ->
> --
> The information is provided "as is", it is suggested you research for
> yourself before you take any advice - you are the one ultimately
> responsible for your actions/problems/solutions. Know what you are
> getting into before you jump in with both feet.
>
>
>