Cannot see DVD/CD files in Explorer

[Bernard]

I have an IBM ThinkPad R52, 2 GB RAm and running XP SP2 with all the latest
Microsoft and other fixes. This is a new system rebuilt only a month or two
ago. Everything worked fine until about a week ago.

Now whenever I put a CD or DVD into the DVD/CD Combo burner drive I cannot
see any files when using Explorer. In the left hand pane of Explorer I see
"DVD-RAM (D" as normal but nothing in the right hand pane. If I right click
on the above I get the properties Window up and it says type = CD Drive, File
System = unknown and 0 bytes for used and free space. If I then click on th
ehardware tab, select the drive and select properties at the bottom I get the
hardware properties Window which says the drive is working OK. If I then
select the Volumes Tab and populate I see the correct Type and capacity
information for whatever disc is in the drive. There are no errors in the
Event Log as far as I can see.

I believe the drive is working OK because I can boot Linux from it natively
and from within VMWare!!

I have seen a number of similar sounding problems in the forums but nothing
that seems to be exactly the same so I have not yet tried the various
suggestions about uninstlaa/reinstall the drive and hacking the Registry.

This is really strange - its like having a ghost drive - there, but not ther!

Any suggestions please?

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

The driver for the CD drive is proobably corrupt.

 

[Bernard]

I think the driver for DVD/CD drives comes with XP doesn't it? If so any idea
how I would go about repairing it please?

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

Go to Start/Run, and type DEVMGMT.MSC , highlight the CD device, Action menu,
"Uninstall", then restart Windows, to find the device drivers again
automatically.

 

[Bernard]

That does not seem to make any difference Mark, I did as you suggested and
the behaviour is still exactly the same. Do you think I should try the
Registry hack for Upper/LowerFilters, or do you think a context handler
problem is more likely to be at the root of it?

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

You can look for the filter entries, but I doubt they are there, since you
see the drive. The failure to see a file system indicates some lack in the
driver software. Thinkpads may need some special driver you can only get from
IBM. I would surf over to the thinkpad support site and look around.
On a different tack, you have jst rebuilt the system, so there is always the
possibility that the install failed in some way. I would try a Repair
install, if that is available to you.
How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install:
http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

You have so much time invested so far, that I think hesitating to 'start
over' should be reconsidered.

 

[Bernard]

The system has worked fine for 6 weeks or so since I rebuilt it including the
DVD/CD drive so I don't think there is a problem with the build. Also there
are no special drivers needed for this laptop - I checked the IBM site the
other night and I don't believe there are any special drivers required - at
least I ihave never seen any mention of them. PC Doctor 5 for Windows says
the drive passes all its tests when I insert a RW DVD in it. I did take a
look at the Registry and there are Upper/LowerFilter key entries with values
in them - do you htink it would do any harm to try deleting these as I think
some forum entries recommend?

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

You can export any registry Key by rigghtclicking it. This creates a *.reg
file, which, when run, restores the data as exported.