DVD optical drive missing from 'my computer'

[Paul Hawkins]

My DVD drive doesn't work. I've tried to reload the drivers but windows XP
can't find them. I've also tried looking for them on the internet.
Since the drivers are somewhere on the original xp cd-rom, I tried to repair
windows but ran into a snag. The repair process got as far as windows
reboot and setup, but then stopped abruptly - asking for a path to the file
'asms'. There is a directory on my original xp disk called 'asms' but no
file of that name.
Do I have any options? I don't wish to re-format C:\ but I will if there is
no alternative.
Thanks,
Paul

 

[Patrick Keenan]

My DVD drive doesn't work. I've tried to reload the drivers but windows
XP can't find them. I've also tried looking for them on the internet.
Since the drivers are somewhere on the original xp cd-rom, I tried to
repair windows but ran into a snag. The repair process got as far as
windows reboot and setup, but then stopped abruptly - asking for a path to
the file 'asms'. There is a directory on my original xp disk called
'asms' but no file of that name.
Do I have any options? I don't wish to re-format C:\ but I will if there
is no alternative.
Thanks,
Paul

Could you please describe exactly what you mean by "doesn't work". Is it
not detected at all, does it not appear in any way in Device Manager, or is
there a yellow exclamation mark?

Is it a reader or a burner?

A DVD drive shouldn't require any special drivers. You should NOT have to
format to fix this, and indeed if the drive has actually failed, formatting
is pointless.

However, it is very possible for an uninstall of some popular CD/DVD burning
software to break access to drives. Simple registry tweaks will fix this.

More details as to what exactly you see would help.

HTH
-pk

 

[Paul Hawkins]

Patrick,
Thanks for your fast response. I actually have two optical drives, a Sony
CD burner 'CRX175E', and a Pioneer DVD reader 'DVD-500M.
They both currently show up in the Device Manager with yellow !!'s thru
them, and they both physically work because either one of them can boot from
and read my original windows xp installation disk with no problem. However
neither one of them shows up in the 'My Computer' window and neither one
will read a disk once windows has booted up. The Sony burner has been
intermittent for years but I was always able to revive it temporarily by
re-starting windows. Now neither one works at all. It's been a while but I
think things went off the rails when I was trying to install s/w for a Dell
mp3 player of dubious origin. I tried to use a couple of restore points but
for some reason windows failed to come up with any previous incarnations.
Everything else seems to be working OK.
One more thing. I just plugged in one of those USB thumb drives. It shows
up in 'My Computer' and seems to work, but it also is listed along with the
optical drives in Device Manager with a yellow exclaimation as well.
Paul

 

[Paul Hawkins]

Patrick,
Thanks for your fast response. I actually have two optical drives, a Sony
CD burner 'CRX175E', and a Pioneer DVD reader 'DVD-500M.
They both currently show up in the Device Manager with yellow !!'s thru
them, and they both physically work because either one of them can boot
from and read my original windows xp installation disk with no problem.
However neither one of them shows up in the 'My Computer' window and
neither one will read a disk once windows has booted up. The message when
I try to re-instal the drivers is; "The driver may be corrupted or
missing" (code 39). The Sony burner has been
intermittent for years but I was always able to revive it temporarily by
re-starting windows. Now neither one works at all. It's been a while but
I think things went off the rails when I was trying to install s/w for a
Dell mp3 player of dubious origin. I tried to use a couple of restore
points but for some reason windows failed to come up with any previous
incarnations. Everything else seems to be working OK.
One more thing. I just plugged in one of those USB thumb drives. It
shows up in 'My Computer' and seems to work, but it also is listed along
with the optical drives in Device Manager with a yellow exclaimation as
well.
Paul