Missing CD drive

[Richard in AZ]

I am trying to help a lady with a Dell computer. Windows XP SP2
The CD-RW drive was missing from "My Computer" and "Windows Explorer"
It also refused to read any CD while in windows.
It will read a bootable CD when restarted.

The CD drive does show in the BIOS.
In the device manager, the CD drive has a flag and reports that Windows cannot install the driver
for this device.

A brand new CD drive installation gave exactly the same results.
The device manager and BIOS both read the correct make and model of the CD Drive (in both cases)

She has the Dell system disk, but it is the old SP1 version and so I cannot do a Windows Repair
Installation.
Of course without the CD-RW drive, we cannot back up her documents, etc. for a clean install.
I tried a slipstreamed copy of my Dell Windows XP with SP2 and could not get to a repair
installation, only a clean install.

She does not know how long the PC has been like this and I did a System Restore back to January 15,
but that did not fix the problem.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Richard in AZ]

I am trying to help a lady with a Dell computer. Windows XP SP2
The CD-RW drive was missing from "My Computer" and "Windows Explorer"
It also refused to read any CD while in windows.
It will read a bootable CD when restarted.

The CD drive does show in the BIOS.
In the device manager, the CD drive has a flag and reports that Windows cannot install the driver
for this device.

A brand new CD drive installation gave exactly the same results.
The device manager and BIOS both read the correct make and model of the CD Drive (in both cases)

She has the Dell system disk, but it is the old SP1 version and so I cannot do a Windows Repair
Installation.
Of course without the CD-RW drive, we cannot back up her documents, etc. for a clean install.
I tried a slipstreamed copy of my Dell Windows XP with SP2 and could not get to a repair
installation, only a clean install.

She does not know how long the PC has been like this and I did a System Restore back to January
15, but that did not fix the problem.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

For information. The hard drive is on the primary IDE and the CD drive is on the secondary IDE.
Both jumpers are set for cable select. I did try the CD on the primary IDE cable, set as a slave
with the HD as master. The BIOS and device manager saw the drive correctly, but windows could not
install a driver for it.

This is definitely a Windows XP error, not a hardware problem. I hope there is a short fix out
there.
I did find one suggestion for a missing CD drive. It reads
"[Start] [Run] [Regedit]
Registry Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class
Key Name: {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
Value Data: [Delete All Value Data from UpperFilters and LowerFilters]
Note: Do not delete the Key or the Multi-String Values. Delete only the data values.
Exit Registry and Reboot"

Has anyone tried this fix before?

 

[Ricky]

I am trying to help a lady with a Dell computer. Windows XP SP2
The CD-RW drive was missing from "My Computer" and "Windows Explorer"
It also refused to read any CD while in windows.
It will read a bootable CD when restarted.

The CD drive does show in the BIOS.
In the device manager, the CD drive has a flag and reports that Windows
cannot install the driver for this device.

A brand new CD drive installation gave exactly the same results.
The device manager and BIOS both read the correct make and model of the
CD Drive (in both cases)

She has the Dell system disk, but it is the old SP1 version and so I
cannot do a Windows Repair Installation.
Of course without the CD-RW drive, we cannot back up her documents, etc.
for a clean install.
I tried a slipstreamed copy of my Dell Windows XP with SP2 and could not
get to a repair installation, only a clean install.

She does not know how long the PC has been like this and I did a System
Restore back to January 15, but that did not fix the problem.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

For information. The hard drive is on the primary IDE and the CD drive is
on the secondary IDE. Both jumpers are set for cable select. I did try
the CD on the primary IDE cable, set as a slave with the HD as master.
The BIOS and device manager saw the drive correctly, but windows could not
install a driver for it.

This is definitely a Windows XP error, not a hardware problem. I hope
there is a short fix out there.
I did find one suggestion for a missing CD drive. It reads
"[Start] [Run] [Regedit]
Registry Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class
Key Name: {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
Value Data: [Delete All Value Data from UpperFilters and LowerFilters]
Note: Do not delete the Key or the Multi-String Values. Delete only the
data values.
Exit Registry and Reboot"

Has anyone tried this fix before?

You can give this a try and see if it helps..
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/scripts_desc/xp_cd_dvd_fix.htm

Have you tried going to device manager..right clicking the drive uninstall
it and let it be reinstalled?

 

[Richard in AZ]

I am trying to help a lady with a Dell computer. Windows XP SP2
The CD-RW drive was missing from "My Computer" and "Windows Explorer"
It also refused to read any CD while in windows.
It will read a bootable CD when restarted.

The CD drive does show in the BIOS.
In the device manager, the CD drive has a flag and reports that Windows cannot install the
driver for this device.

A brand new CD drive installation gave exactly the same results.
The device manager and BIOS both read the correct make and model of the CD Drive (in both cases)

She has the Dell system disk, but it is the old SP1 version and so I cannot do a Windows Repair
Installation.
Of course without the CD-RW drive, we cannot back up her documents, etc. for a clean install.
I tried a slipstreamed copy of my Dell Windows XP with SP2 and could not get to a repair
installation, only a clean install.

She does not know how long the PC has been like this and I did a System Restore back to January
15, but that did not fix the problem.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

For information. The hard drive is on the primary IDE and the CD drive is on the secondary IDE.
Both jumpers are set for cable select. I did try the CD on the primary IDE cable, set as a
slave with the HD as master. The BIOS and device manager saw the drive correctly, but windows
could not install a driver for it.

This is definitely a Windows XP error, not a hardware problem. I hope there is a short fix out
there.
I did find one suggestion for a missing CD drive. It reads
"[Start] [Run] [Regedit]
Registry Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class
Key Name: {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
Value Data: [Delete All Value Data from UpperFilters and LowerFilters]
Note: Do not delete the Key or the Multi-String Values. Delete only the data values.
Exit Registry and Reboot"

Has anyone tried this fix before?

You can give this a try and see if it helps..
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/scripts_desc/xp_cd_dvd_fix.htm

Have you tried going to device manager..right clicking the drive uninstall it and let it be
reinstalled?

Yes I did try removing and finding new hardware again on both drives. Always came back flagged.
Thanks I will try the fixes above.

 

[Brueit]

Hi,
I had a similar problem and the fix described deleting the upper and lower
limit data value cured the problem after a reboot.I am much obliged.
Brueit

I am trying to help a lady with a Dell computer. Windows XP SP2
The CD-RW drive was missing from "My Computer" and "Windows Explorer"
It also refused to read any CD while in windows.
It will read a bootable CD when restarted.

The CD drive does show in the BIOS.
In the device manager, the CD drive has a flag and reports that Windows cannot install the driver
for this device.

A brand new CD drive installation gave exactly the same results.
The device manager and BIOS both read the correct make and model of the CD Drive (in both cases)

She has the Dell system disk, but it is the old SP1 version and so I cannot do a Windows Repair
Installation.
Of course without the CD-RW drive, we cannot back up her documents, etc. for a clean install.
I tried a slipstreamed copy of my Dell Windows XP with SP2 and could not get to a repair
installation, only a clean install.

She does not know how long the PC has been like this and I did a System Restore back to January
15, but that did not fix the problem.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

For information. The hard drive is on the primary IDE and the CD drive is on the secondary IDE.
Both jumpers are set for cable select. I did try the CD on the primary IDE cable, set as a slave
with the HD as master. The BIOS and device manager saw the drive correctly, but windows could not
install a driver for it.

This is definitely a Windows XP error, not a hardware problem. I hope there is a short fix out
there.
I did find one suggestion for a missing CD drive. It reads
"[Start] [Run] [Regedit]
Registry Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class
Key Name: {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
Value Data: [Delete All Value Data from UpperFilters and LowerFilters]
Note: Do not delete the Key or the Multi-String Values. Delete only the data values.
Exit Registry and Reboot"

Has anyone tried this fix before?