DVD drive Vanished

[PostMaster]

Out of nowhere my internal cd/dvd drive has vanished.
I went to burn some tv shows I recorded thru media center last week
and I noticed the "burn" button was not where it always had been. I
have that drive set at auto run but puting in disc no longer triggers
the "open with" prompt either.
Go to "My Computer" and E:\ drive no longer there. Tried "RUN" E: and
get "E:/ refers to a location unavailable blablabla". Go to device
manager and tried to see if driver is problem but it tells me driver
is in place and up to date.

Thats all I know to do as far as OS goes.
Anything else I can try before opening it up and checking internally?

This thing is only a little over a year old.

Dell Inspiron 537
Running Vista Home Premium 64bit
2 gig ram
Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 2.2 GHz 2.19 GHz

 

[Joel]

Out of nowhere my internal cd/dvd drive has vanished.
I went to burn some tv shows I recorded thru media center last week
and I noticed the "burn" button was not where it always had been. I
have that drive set at auto run but puting in disc no longer triggers
the "open with" prompt either.
Go to "My Computer" and E:\ drive no longer there. Tried "RUN" E: and
get "E:/ refers to a location unavailable blablabla". Go to device
manager and tried to see if driver is problem but it tells me driver
is in place and up to date.

Thats all I know to do as far as OS goes.
Anything else I can try before opening it up and checking internally?

This thing is only a little over a year old.

Dell Inspiron 537
Running Vista Home Premium 64bit
2 gig ram
Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 2.2 GHz 2.19 GHz

All you need to do is go back to the very basic.

1. Does the CMOS detect the DVD?

2. If CMOS doesn't then have you checked the cable, power connection etc.?
Or I would say CHECK the connection

a. POWER you should be able to check by the LED

b. CABLE, you may have to make sure it's firn connected, and trying
different cable see if the cable is bad.

3. BURN Button? it could be that the program doesn't see any DVD is avaible
to burn, or it could be the program has some issue. You may say that the
program worked fine before, but I am talking about the problem just started
lately.

You can try to reinstall the program, or I would try the one comes with
many version of Windows. If CMOS detects the DVD and I think the connection
is fine, the DVD is still good.

 

[PostMaster]

        All you need to do is go back to the very basic.

1. Does the CMOS detect the DVD?

2. If CMOS doesn't then have you checked the cable, power connection etc.?
Or I would say CHECK the connection

        a. POWER you should be able to check by the LED

        b. CABLE, you may have to make sure it's firn connected, and trying
                 different cable see if the cable is bad.

3. BURN Button? it could be that the program doesn't see any DVD is avaible
to burn, or it could be the program has some issue.  You may say that the
program worked fine before, but I am talking about the problem just started
lately.

        You can try to reinstall the program, or I would try the one comes with
many version of Windows.  If CMOS detects the DVD and I think the connection
is fine, the DVD is still good.

"All" programs associated with communicating with the CD/DVD drive
return "device not found" (ie WMC IMGburn, all windows apps and 3rd
party apps, My computer, command line E:\ . "nothing" "nadda" "not
there".
however I did access CMOS and it does recognize the drive but windows
cannot find it.
It was set to auto in cmos I changed it to CD/DVD but no change.
I'm baffled.

 

[Uncle Vinnie]

I am not sure if this is your case, it was mine with computers after a
recent Windows XP update.
But, right click My Computer, check under device manager - there may be an
exclamation point with the DVD - check drivers - in my case a roll back
driver fixed the issue....

 

[Stephen B]

"All" programs associated with communicating with the CD/DVD drive
return "device not found" (ie WMC IMGburn, all windows apps and 3rd
party apps, My computer, command line E:\ . "nothing" "nadda" "not
there".
however I did access CMOS and it does recognize the drive but windows
cannot find it.
It was set to auto in cmos I changed it to CD/DVD but no change.
I'm baffled.

Try this script to see if it comes back. The script works on Vista, though it is
written for XP:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/scripts_desc/xp_cd_dvd_fix.htm

-steve

 

[Jan Alter]

Try this script to see if it comes back. The script works on Vista, though
it is
written for XP:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/scripts_desc/xp_cd_dvd_fix.htm

-steve

If you have an OS installation disk put it into the drive, set the CMOS to
boot from the CD and reboot the computer. If you get booting from the drive
then the computer is seeing the drive and it is working. If not then either
the drive, cable, or even perhaps the channel on the mb are gone. In that
case open the computer and make sure the cable is plugged in tightly, or if
another channel is available try plugging the cable into another channel on
the mb.

 

[Joel]

"All" programs associated with communicating with the CD/DVD drive
return "device not found" (ie WMC IMGburn, all windows apps and 3rd
party apps, My computer, command line E:\ . "nothing" "nadda" "not
there".
however I did access CMOS and it does recognize the drive but windows
cannot find it.
It was set to auto in cmos I changed it to CD/DVD but no change.
I'm baffled.

OK, if the program reports

- "Device Not Found" then íts pretty much saying that the computer doesn't
detect it to make it available for the program to detect. BUT then again,
you may have to look at at least 2 basic things

a. Look at the CMOS MENU to see if COS sees it. If it does then you
pretty much know that the connection is fine (90-95%) then you pay
closer attention to the DRIVER (it can be corrupted/damaged)

b. If CMOS doesn't see it then there is a chance that it has some
connection issue. Either the cable or power connector.

Oops! since I often response pretty much line-by-line so I responsed
before reading the line saying you did check the CMOS.

OK, since the CMOS detects it then this is what you may try.

- Unplug then replug the connections, and you may want to try different
cable see if it helps. Why different cable, changing port? well, you just
want to make sure ALL 40-80 small wires (it may not have 80 wires but pretty
close) are perfectly good, no broken, no loosen, nor dirty etc... Or CMOS
may only check few connections but not all 80 connections like program do.

- Check or try to reinstall the driver see if the driver gets damaged (very
rare but I have seen it happen 1-2 times in the past 3 decades)

I would check with the CABLE and POWER connector first.

Good luck!

 

[PostMaster]

        Oops!  since I often response pretty much line-by-line so I responsed
before reading the line saying you did check the CMOS.

        OK, since the CMOS detects it then this is what you may try.

- Unplug then replug the connections, and you may want to try different
cable see if it helps.  Why different cable, changing port?  well, you just
want to make sure ALL 40-80 small wires (it may not have 80 wires but pretty
close) are perfectly good, no broken, no loosen, nor dirty etc... Or CMOS
may only check few connections but not all 80 connections like program do..

- Check or try to reinstall the driver see if the driver gets damaged (very
rare but I have seen it happen 1-2 times in the past 3 decades)

        I would check with the CABLE and POWER connector first.

        Good luck!

Hey thanks for all the help. I actually am trying to download drivers
from www.dell.com
on the "downloads and drivers" page. I put in my service tag and it
had 35 recommended driver downloads associated with cd/dvd, bios,
video and audio.

Now check this out. In order to download multiple files from the site
I would have to use the "Dell Driver Download manager" Ok, I DL that
app and checked off the 35 relevant drivers and started the download
about 1am. 14 hours later (now at 3:00pm) the first 3 drivers show
{ 0.7mb of 7.2mb, 0.7mb of 5.5mb, 0.6 of 5.5mb } and the rest (33
files) still show "waiting" at this rate it will take 5 days to DL
these first 3 files and 2 or 3 months to DL the rest. This is
insanity!!! Good news is my Dell is still under warranty for 55 more
days. Seams it's only been 10 months since I purchased it.

I have 30mbps cable conn. thru charter. The fasted speed available in
my area, and I checked my cpu % used and its only 8-10%. I'm not
showing any signs of a virus I've scanned with nod32 and windows
defender, but my best protection (safe hex) makes me pretty sure it's
not a virus.Only thing is "this" is the puter I use as a dvr via
WMC&XBOX360. So even tho I could let it DL for a couple months just to
see if it's a driver It would suck if that interferes w/recording.
Hmm. What to do? Call Dell seams to be an option but then again we're
talking 2 months if I have to send it in. If I open it I void the
warranty.

My 2 front USB's still work I checked that already, so...
Maybe create an iso image of my "DELL DRIVERS AND UTILITIES" cd to
flash drive? (With my eMachine)
Forgot to mention I have 2pc's on same network. Actually I own 3 but
ones boxed up for sell.

Thanks,
PM

 

[PostMaster]

There is a registry entry that creates problems like this.  Try a google
search for " DVD disappears filter settings"

THATS IT!!! doing that search lead me to the probable cause. ITUNES. I
started getting an error alert on start up a few weeks back on my
DELL. Something like "Windows could not locate APPLE update file", or
something similar. Anyhow,... since I mainly used My eMachine to
update my IPhone I just un-installed everything Apple on the Dell to
get rid of that alert. I found a post somebody complaining ITUNE
update made CD/DVD drive disappear. Now it all starting to make sense.

Thanks Guys,
Hopefully I can conjure out a solution from all the helpful
suggestions.
PM

 

[Joel]

There is a registry entry that creates problems like this. Try a google
search for " DVD disappears filter settings"

It woiuld be interesting to know more about the registry as if it does
then it would be another very rare case, and won't be easy to solve. If
it's really the registry then I guess botting to Safe Mode is probably the
easiest way to remove the information then hoping Windows will detect and
install newer working driver.

 

[Stephen B]

I already gave you the solution -
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/scripts_desc/xp_cd_dvd_fix.htm
The utility says it is for XP, but it works on Vista and 7, too. It automates
the process of repairing the registry entries involved.
-steve

 

[Joel]

THATS IT!!! doing that search lead me to the probable cause. ITUNES. I
started getting an error alert on start up a few weeks back on my
DELL. Something like "Windows could not locate APPLE update file", or
something similar. Anyhow,... since I mainly used My eMachine to
update my IPhone I just un-installed everything Apple on the Dell to
get rid of that alert. I found a post somebody complaining ITUNE
update made CD/DVD drive disappear. Now it all starting to make sense.

Thanks Guys,
Hopefully I can conjure out a solution from all the helpful
suggestions.
PM

Thanks for another very interesting found. And I don't think I for life
would be able to figure this out.

 

[PostMaster]

        Thanks for another very interesting found.  And I don't think
I for life

would be able to figure this out.

I already gave you the solution -
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/scripts_desc/xp_cd_dvd_fix.htm
The utility says it is for XP, but it works on Vista and 7, too. It
automates
the process of repairing the registry entries involved.
-steve

Yes I have a gut feeling you're right, I'm just a little hesitant to
go to it first thing because If thats not the problem, and it has an
UN-desirable effect, I know next to nothing about how to fix it. I
"will" run that script if I can't download drivers.
I did succesfully transfer the"Drivers and Utility" disc to usb flash
drive. and this is what I got.

Folders:V
CDS
DIAGS
HTML
INSTALL
SUPPORT
UPC32
ZIPFILES

FilesV
AUTORCD (blu circle to the left)***
AUTORUN
BOOT
BOOT
CHOICE
DELLDIAG
DIAG32
DOSMENU
OPTIONS
RCDMENU (blu circle)***
RCDMENU
REBOOT
SET_LOC

Now I just gatta poke around to find drivers, and If that doesn't do
it I''ll DL Stevens script.
Thanks again,
PM

 

[Stephen B]

The script has no undesirable effects. If the filter settings are correct,
nothing changes. If the filter settings in the registry are missing, which is
the case when an uninstall of software that includes burning capabilities messes
them up, the script corrects the registry.
-steve

 

[PostMaster]

The script has no undesirable effects. If the filter settings are
correct,
nothing changes. If the filter settings in the registry are missing,
which is
the case when an uninstall of software that includes burning
capabilities messes
them up, the script corrects the registry.
-steve

After you posted this I stopped what I was doing and gave it a try.
No change at all. I followed instructions to the tee 3 times praying
it would work
and no go. I did diagnostics check in cmos again also and it says
[SATA_1-PLDS DVD +/-]: PASS
I may just salvage my media and format this bitch I'm getting tired
of the whole mess.

Thanks,
PM

 

[Stephen B]

If it made no difference, then, unfortunately, the registry isn't your issue.
-steve