Ok thought I'd ask before I get so frustrated by this I use the 'fix
everything tool', otherwise known as a sledge-hammer. I hope someone can
help....

I've got a shuttle SN27P2, running xp pro. I've been having issues with
reading from the cd/dvd drive for a while, but have had no problems writing
to them. So I decided to get another drive to test. Have now got ASUS
DRW-1814BLT (DVD-RAM drive).

Everytime I insert a disc, whether that be CD or DVD, blank or pre-recorded
etc windows freezes. So I disabled all of the Autoplay features. That didn't
work. Heard that Nero sometimes causes issues so uninstalled Nero. That
didn't work. Have updated the motherboard drivers and done windows update. I
tried the DVD-drive on another SATA2 socket and it encountered the same
problems. So it's not the SATA cabling. I installed the drive successfully in
my older PC and it worked fine so the drive itself isn't faulty. So I started
looking at the possibility of driver issues. This is where I have little / no
knowledge and have come unstuck.

When I go through device manager and look at the properties of the drive
there are 7 drivers in the list. They are as follows cdrbsdrv.sys, cdrom.sys,
gearaspiwdm.sys, imapi.sys, pxhelp20.sys, redbook.sys, storprop.dll

From what I've read this may be the source of the problem as there shouldn't
be that many. But I don't know which ones should / shouldn't be there and how
to go about removing them.

I've tried uninstalling and re-installing the drive through device manager
and they all re-appear on the list.

Could anyone throw any light on this matter please? If there's any
information I've missed off then feel free to ask.

Thanks.

The Cornish Tramp wrote:
> Ok thought I'd ask before I get so frustrated by this I use the 'fix
> everything tool', otherwise known as a sledge-hammer. I hope someone can
> help....
>
> I've got a shuttle SN27P2, running xp pro. I've been having issues with
> reading from the cd/dvd drive for a while, but have had no problems writing
> to them. So I decided to get another drive to test. Have now got ASUS
> DRW-1814BLT (DVD-RAM drive).
>
> Everytime I insert a disc, whether that be CD or DVD, blank or pre-recorded
> etc windows freezes. So I disabled all of the Autoplay features. That didn't
> work. Heard that Nero sometimes causes issues so uninstalled Nero. That
> didn't work. Have updated the motherboard drivers and done windows update. I
> tried the DVD-drive on another SATA2 socket and it encountered the same
> problems. So it's not the SATA cabling. I installed the drive successfully in
> my older PC and it worked fine so the drive itself isn't faulty. So I started
> looking at the possibility of driver issues. This is where I have little / no
> knowledge and have come unstuck.
>
> When I go through device manager and look at the properties of the drive
> there are 7 drivers in the list. They are as follows cdrbsdrv.sys, cdrom.sys,
> gearaspiwdm.sys, imapi.sys, pxhelp20.sys, redbook.sys, storprop.dll
>
> From what I've read this may be the source of the problem as there shouldn't
> be that many. But I don't know which ones should / shouldn't be there and how
> to go about removing them.
>
> I've tried uninstalling and re-installing the drive through device manager
> and they all re-appear on the list.
>
> Could anyone throw any light on this matter please? If there's any
> information I've missed off then feel free to ask.
>
> Thanks.

Some of the strange files are mentioned here, as Upper and Lower filter
drivers.

http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?t=6757

Paul

Had a look at that link. Indeed it mentions some of the files I've identified
as being possibly responsible. It also identifies them as being from
non-microsoft CD/DVD burning utilities. But unfortunately that discussion
goes off on a tanget about whether or not it's the media being used in the
drive and doesn't really solve my issue. But I did try all sorts of different
discs in the drive after reading that article, but still no luck. :-(

Thanks anyway.

The Cornish Tramp wrote:
> Had a look at that link. Indeed it mentions some of the files I've identified
> as being possibly responsible. It also identifies them as being from
> non-microsoft CD/DVD burning utilities. But unfortunately that discussion
> goes off on a tanget about whether or not it's the media being used in the
> drive and doesn't really solve my issue. But I did try all sorts of different
> discs in the drive after reading that article, but still no luck. :-(
>
> Thanks anyway.

I was on the way out the door when I posted that.

You'll find a lot of references to removing upper and lower
filter drivers in this group. There is even a .reg file
floating around, to clean them out.

As I see it, there are a couple ways to do it. You could remove the
applications they came with (which is why I provided the link, as
a way of pointing out a couple of the possibilities). I suppose
their removal would be as good as the installer that was used.

Or you can use the generic "clean 'em out" routine. I don't understand
the potential side effects of doing that, as to whether they will
get restored as needed, or will disappear for good. Just like I
get nervous at deleting anything from my system folder.

http://groups.google.ca/group/micros...5?dmode=source

References:

http://www.aumha.org/regfiles.htm
http://aumha.org/downloads/cdgone.zip (winxp only)

"The popular CDGONE patch. CD drives may vanish in Windows Explorer, Device Manager, etc.
if a third-party CD-burning package has been uninstalled and Registry references for some
code modules aren’t removed successfully. This patch and a reboot usually will restore
the missing drives. Any third party package still required will then have to be re-installed.
For more information on this and other possible causes, see the “Problems” section of
Alex Nichol’s "Burning CDs in Windows XP" ( http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpcd.htm ) article."

HTH,
Paul

Thanks for the reply, that makes more sense. I tried one of the patchs. Read
into the upper and lower filter levels etc. Tried various things and none of
it worked.

So I did the alternative. I cleared cmos incase of any cmos corruption that
was causing an issue. Re-installed XP Pro from CD. Installation went smoothly
and at no point did it throw a wobbly and refuse to read from the CD. I then
installed the motherboard drivers for the shuttle sn27p2. Yet again this was
fine. Then I did all the live-updates for windows. Several resets later etc I
come to install other drivers from CD and it just freezes again.

So as it stands at moment I've got a fresh install of xp pro with all the
updates. I've installed motherboard drivers. And can't now install anything
else from cd/dvd. So I'm assuming with such a fresh copy of xp with no
additions and a brand new cd/dvd drive that's tested fine in other pcs i'm
looking at some hardware error rather than driver error.

But any more suggestions would be greatfully received.

The Cornish Tramp wrote:
> Thanks for the reply, that makes more sense. I tried one of the patchs. Read
> into the upper and lower filter levels etc. Tried various things and none of
> it worked.
>
> So I did the alternative. I cleared cmos incase of any cmos corruption that
> was causing an issue. Re-installed XP Pro from CD. Installation went smoothly
> and at no point did it throw a wobbly and refuse to read from the CD. I then
> installed the motherboard drivers for the shuttle sn27p2. Yet again this was
> fine. Then I did all the live-updates for windows. Several resets later etc I
> come to install other drivers from CD and it just freezes again.
>
> So as it stands at moment I've got a fresh install of xp pro with all the
> updates. I've installed motherboard drivers. And can't now install anything
> else from cd/dvd. So I'm assuming with such a fresh copy of xp with no
> additions and a brand new cd/dvd drive that's tested fine in other pcs i'm
> looking at some hardware error rather than driver error.
>
> But any more suggestions would be greatfully received.

So at least looking in the driver list for the CDROM, you see a reduced list.
In Device Manager, the CDROM is listed as "Use this device (enable)".

On my Win2K system, which hasn't had any burning software installed, I have:

cdrom.sys, redbook.sys, storprop.dll

On my IDE ATA/ATAPI controller, I've got "PIO Only" ? I guess that is because
I've got a 40 wire cable connected only to the CDROM. My hard drive has
an 80 wire cable, which is why the controller setting is "DMA if available".

I don't really know what else to look at, to prove a device is readable.

Perhaps the installation of SP2 is what changed things ? Maybe someone
else knows about a patch or problem, which is Service Pack dependent.

Paul