Missing CDROM after Vista installation

[Guest]

I have a Dell Dimension 3100 which I bought recently. It came with a 48X
CDRW drive (I believe it is a TSSTCorp CD-RW drive/TS-H292C ATA device).
After I installed Vista RC1 on the machine, I can no longer see the drive.
When I power up the machine, the drive swirls a few times with the light
blinks a few times then nothing happens. I cannot even open the drawer. I
cannot see the drive at all from explorer nor device manager. What is wrong
and how can I fix it?

 

[UXD]

Earlier post, same problem, hope this helps.


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;320553

 

[Guest]

Actually I read that posting before. But the two suggested methods did not
work for me. For the first method, there is no UpperFilters and LowerFilters
in the registry key mentioned on my machine. For the second method, the
drive does not show up in device manager at all. I have tried cold boot and
warm boot but the drive still does not show up. Is there something else I
can try?

 

[Clark]

Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling the drive? If it doesn't show
up to uninstall, try booting to Safe Mode and check there. Does it make any
difference if there is some type of media in the drive? What software do
you have installed to work with the drive?

Clark

 

[Guest]

At one point I uninstalled the drive. However, I cannot since then reinstall
it. In Device Manager I rescanned the Drives node many times but no new
drive showed up. I have re-installed Vista now and still no drive. The
machine came with XP and the drive was working then. The only time I could
open the drive door was after POST and before Windows loading up. After
Windows was up, I could press the door button all I want and nothing happened.

I think I am going to try to disconnect the IDE cable, reboot, reconnect the
cable and reboot.

Thank you both for your suggestions though.

 

[Guest]

Finally!! The CDROM is rescued. Here is the method I used. I hope nobody
else needs to use it, but in case the same thing happens to you...

1. Unpluck the drive cable
2. After machine is booted up, check there is no drive in Computer and in
Device Manager
3. Shut machine down and reconnect the cable
4. After the machine is booted up again, cherck for DVD/CD-ROM drive in
Device Manager (at this stage, I had a generic driver on my machine)
5. Uninstall the driver; shutdown machine
6. Disconnect cable the second time and boot up
7. There should be no DVD/CD-ROM device in Device Manager
8. Shutdown machine; reattach cable
9. Boot up machine
10. In Device Manager a driver for my drive (TSSTcorp CD-RW TS-H292C ATA
Device) reappears!
11. Test drive by placing a data CD and a music CD in the drive and check
them out

I guess the key here is to first restore the generic driver by unplucking
and reattachment of the IDE cable, uninstall it and then force the system to
find the correct driver by unplucking and re-attachment.