DVD RW not recognised by Vista problem

[Netty]

Hi

I have a 3 month old Evesham pc running Windows Vista home basic. I have the
Windows Updates turned on so they download when new updates are available. I
have had 1 Windows update downloaded and installed on 16/11/07 and two were
downloaded and installed last night. Since these were installed, Windows no
longer recognises my DVD RW. The PC knows it's there as it shows in Device
Manager but the device status says 'Windows cannot initialize the driver for
this hardware. Code 37'. I have checked for solutions and as no suprise,
there are no current solutions to this accoring to Microsoft and they'll
look into a solution (I'll not hold my breath as I know how long it can
take). The DVD RW doesn't show when I click on 'Computer' either.

I have checked event viewer and after trawling through, it's pointing me to
a problem with a file called cdrom.sys - I believe it could be corrupt. The
pc didn't come with a Vista disk - it was preloaded so I can't go down the
road of replacing that one file that could be corrupt.

I'm a bit stumped as to what I could do next. Any ideas??

TIA
Netty

 

[Simon Zerafa]

Hi,

You have a software problem with drivers or other software which controls
the device.

These drivers are often called "filters" and there can be upper and lower
filters (before or after the device).

In situations where software installs filters and then fails to remove them
when uninstalled or the drivers associated with the fiters are removed then
you have odd error codes with CD / DVD devices.

Here is an article which expains in more detail what is happening here:

http://djlizard.net/2007/04/30/230/#comment-3039

The DEVFILTER tool on this site:

http://www.bustrace.com/downloads/free_utilities.htm

will allow you to locate which drivers are missing or faulty on the device
chain.

Then you need to do some registry editing to remove the offending filter
entries to resolve the problem.

Kind Regards

Simon

 

[Netty]

Hi,

You have a software problem with drivers or other software which controls
the device.

These drivers are often called "filters" and there can be upper and lower
filters (before or after the device).

In situations where software installs filters and then fails to remove
them when uninstalled or the drivers associated with the fiters are
removed then you have odd error codes with CD / DVD devices.

Here is an article which expains in more detail what is happening here:

http://djlizard.net/2007/04/30/230/#comment-3039

The DEVFILTER tool on this site:

http://www.bustrace.com/downloads/free_utilities.htm

will allow you to locate which drivers are missing or faulty on the device
chain.

Then you need to do some registry editing to remove the offending filter
entries to resolve the problem.

Kind Regards

Simon

Thanks Simon. I've tinkered with the registry and it's now back to normal.
I'm still a bit puzzled as to why I got the problem in the first place
seeing as all I did was install the Vista updates, but hey-ho, possibly just
one of those Microsoft things that's sent to drive us mad I suppose!

Netty

 

[Not Me]

There was a problem with XP when you removed some DVD/CD burning software
that would make the CD/DVD act up like that.
I don't remember the number, but there was a KB article on it.

 

[Simon Zerafa]

Hi,

Its a fairly common issue on XP and Vista so I suspect there are a number of
apps which cause it.

Itunes, Roxio and others have been implicated in the past.

Using System Restore also causes these sorts of issues and is best avoided
to prevent such problems from occuring.

Kind Regards

Simon

 

[Bob Eyster]

I don't remember having any of these issues in XP but in Vista it's a weekly
event

 

[uvbogden]

This is a fix for the problem of CD/DVD drive not recognized or accessible by
Windows Explorer. It works for XP and Vista.

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/scripts_desc/xp_cd_dvd_fix.htm

 

[Bob S]

Hi,

You are right-on about the filters causing the problem. I just found my DVD
drive not recognized in my computer and I couldn't burn my pictures. I called
Gateway and they walked me through clearing the upper and lower filters which
worked.

However, they said that my iTunes version 7.6 was the culprit in Vista and I
would have to remove it - which I did - and after restarting my computer the
DVD drive worked. Gateway has had many customers with the same problem.

Until some fix can resolve this problem, I have to choose between iTunes and
my DVD drive.

Bob