Who stole my CD ROM drivers?

I tried to find the original KB article, I found this:
http://support.microsoft.com/search...spid=1173&catalog=LCID=1033&1033comm=1&res=20

 

OK, thanks - I see where Mike said he went back in to see if the keys were back.

 

Hi all,

First thing first. Yes I did mean to say that I uninstalled the Sonic software. I'd fix it, but my time has run out on the edit option.

Okay, onto the results.
1 - I checked the drives and they are set to Cable Select.
2 - Received Alert! Previous shutdown due to thermal event. Strange, it shut down normally and I have cleaned the case out in the last couple of days. I haven't seen it since or have I seen it ever before.
3 - no change in drive status after unplugging and plugging in every cable possible.
4 - reboot into BIOS
5 - Secondary Master and Slave Drive is shown as Unknown Device, there is no PnP option and no reset configuration data page
6 - upon boot, Secondary drive 0 & 1 not found
7 - Installed RegCleaner and deleted any Nero and Sonic entries. There was no NEROXML entry only the following entries for Nero: Installation, Shared32, Nero8, and Shared.
8 - Now go look for the file in your computer and delete it... I'm not sure what file you want me to look for. I searched for any Sonic and Nero files/folders. I found a couple Sonic and deleted those.
9 - shut down and reconnect all cables and then boot system
10 - no change in drive status. Still error code 39

I holding off on the system restore since I have no idea exactly when the drives were lost, so I have no idea how far to go back on the restore. Thoughts: WinMX can be removed. I wasn't sure what that was, so I looked on Google. Looks like it was shut down a couple years ago. Ipod2PC was installed after the drive problem, so I see no need to change that. Adobe 8 is only installed with Adobe required items, no extra "toys" installed.

Any other thoughts? I appreciate you guys hanging in there!

 

As far as the filters? That would be on 2-2-09. That's the first time I removed those entries.

 

OK, we have a few contradictions here that may be leading us into deeper water. You had said - only one burning program, Sonic, and you installed it. Now, in addition to the NEROXML appearing in your installed program list, you have referenced a Nero folder containing Installation, Shared32, Nero8, and Shared. We also have that itunes installation from 11/26/08.

Most BIOS menus include a Plug and Play play page but I also realize Dell BIOS menu's are often quite crippled, preventing users from making many changes. What I wanted to do was put hardware detection and IRQ assignment back in the hands of the BIOS and I will guarantee you there is an entry somewhere in that menu for Plug and Play OS installed with Yes or No as an option. This plus a reset configuration option would have permitted the BIOS to redetect those drives and control the IRQ re-assigments but its quite possible that Dell won't give us that option. All I can do is suggest you take another look and go through all pages of your BIOS menu just in case those options may exist. If they don't, they don't.

The problem we have is obvious - your machine is not recognizing those drives. You reloaded chipset drivers including those pertaining to the secondary IDE controller. You've removed those drives and tried to redetect them. You've checked and changed cables and uninstalled what we thought was your only burning program. Nero or whatever part of it was in your machine has now been disabled based on what we did with RegCleaner. Ditto for any remnants of Sonic. So where does this take us?

At this point, my vote goes to Matt's last suggestion which I asked him to hold off on - System Restore. And, I would go back to at least November 25, 2008 or earlier. However, before you do that, open RegCleaner and restore all of the registry entries we took out. They are all saved there. reboot after restoring these and then run System Restore. That may still leave an absence of the upper and lower filters which you removed on 2/2 but I think they too will be restored. Then lets see what we've got and whether or not more drastic action may be necessary.

There is also a very real possibility that we've got a problem with that secondary IDE controller but we can test for that (sort of) another way.
Sorry this is becoming a lot of work with no positive results to show for your efforts but lets see where this leads us.



edit: note to Matt & Pete - my thinking - Force ASPI after this if problems assuming drive recognition restored - your thoughts?

 

A little clarification. Sonic was the only program installed on the computer at the time I started this drive problem. Nero may have been, at one time, installed on the system but it wasn't at the time I started this. The Nero entries that I referred to were found with the RegCleaner program that I used. iTunes is installed and has been installed for a couple years.

As for the PnP in BIOS, I went through every setting/page and found nothing. As you said, Dell may not offer me the option to change that.

If I go the system restore route, will that undo all the updates that I have made since that point? I assuming yes. There may not be many, mostly Microsoft updates, but I wanted to know. I will have to try and pin down the kids to see if I can get a better date out of them.

Mike

 

I don't recall if the drives have been tested for being loaded by the BIOS. I would suggest booting to a bootable CD and check that they work outside of Windows.

Windows XP doesn't "naturally" have ASPI installed. Burning or other similar programs install it. From memory, the ForceASPI will check if ASPI is present, but it installing it might be possible alternative to reinstalling Windows. Even then, a repair reinstall of Windows would be my first option.

Yes you will lose any updates and programs that were installed after the restore date (the files will still be there, but not installed).

Matt

 

Hi Guys, I have been following this with great interest to see what you are coming up with.
At this point now I have to admit that I have had a similar situation some time ago, and not knowing how to solve it I administered the Sledge Hammer Method Repair at the second "R" and it did fix the situation. Mind you at the time it was a shot in the dark for me.
So my vote goes with Pete on this.

 

OK then - I'm certainly not going stand opposed. Mike - it looks to be unanimous - a repair install is the general consensus. Reset anything you may have changed in the BIOS while you were in there (not sure if anything was ever changed) before you do your repair installation.

Nice cold weather project for you.
Good Luck.

 

I don't mind the work if I find out what the problem is. It's not knowing that is killing me.

No go with the bootable CD. I inserted the Operating System CD and tried to boot from that. It ignored the request and proceeded to start normally. Not good.

I'm assuming a repair install is out because of the lack of CD booting. Does this leave me with a system restore or a reload of the system? Then again, if I can't boot from the CD, can I even reload the system? This is just getting better and better.

This is looking like a better option all the time!

I live in Minnesota. It's cold all the time up here.

So, is the system restore route my only option right now? Am willing to try just about anything.

 

Hi All,

Success! I was doing some more looking around the net and ran across something I thought was worth a try. It seems that Sony BMG installs XCP software on your computer when you play a CD made by them. I downloaded their software to remove it, rebooted, and the drives came back! Both drives are playing CDs again and seem to work just fine. I will have to try burning to them later to make sure, but everything looks good from here. In case anyone is wondering about the removal software, you can find it here: Sony BMG Uninstaller

If the problem reappears, and I hope it doesn't, at least I just have to run the uninstaller and I'm good to go again. I appreciate all the help that you have offered. Thanks!

Mike

 

Great News Mike - As you could tell from my last post, I had given up - figured it was one of those that wouldn't be resolved without having physical access to your machine. Now the question ...........

How did you know that this was on your machine? Did the kids clue you in to something they remembered or what? The point I'm getting to is, how can one determine this has been installed on a computer?

I know its cold up there, you missed my earlier reference re: sending that computer to Lakewood.

Nice job Mike. No, very nice job,

 

No need for the Sledge Hammer after all.

Well done Mike

 

I would have never imagined that it would be a little program like that. Who would have thought that listening to CDs would create this problem?

Yea, I figured we were running out of ideas on this one. You hung in there though.

Sorry, I think it was the meaning that I missed. My mistake.

You know, Rockster, I'm not really sure why the light went on. 3 possibilities. I read about it and for some reason I thought to myself that those letters look familiar. I'm not even sure where I think I saw those though. Seeing that it was from CDs, I thought it was worth a try. My kids copy a lot of songs off CDs onto their iPods. Hearing about all the copyright items, I thought it might just be possible. Letting the program run, I noticed a CD on the table produced by Sony. I think it was a sign. And the last thing, I WAS DESPARATE. I was to the point that I would have tried anything. I wish I could give you a definite reason why I thought it was the problem, but I don't have one. If it was on the system, I don't have it anymore. A search brings up nothing. I guess I should have checked before removing it.

A big thanks to all who tried to help with this problem. This is why I joined this board and why I recommend it to others. Thanks again!

Mike