Optical drive does not read disks

My laptop (Compaq Presario V6700) is almost three years old now. It still works well, but today I tried to update a file and found a problem. The optical drive does not seem to be working.

I have not used the optical drive for quite a while, perhaps three or four months. So I do not know how long this problem has been going on, and whether it is intermittent or not.

I suspect the drive itself is faulty. But is there any way to check? I tried to update the driver, but it said that the driver is already up-to-date.

Thank you.

 

First try cleaning the lens by using lens cleaner. It could be a simple case of dirt getting into lens.

 

I tried cleaning the lens. That did not help. (Although I'm not sure how good a job I did. I was not sure where the lens was, and may have just cleaned a cover to it.)

I then tried a Microsoft support troubleshooter. That "Mr Fixit" did not find a problem, and the registry did not have any upper or lower filters to delete.

But in following the steps Microsoft suggested, I went to the Device Manager to uninstall the device and reinstall it. To my surprise the CD/DVD drive is no longer listed.

It had been listed an hour or so earlier when I checked to see if there was a newer driver. Since then I had removed the CD/DVD drive from the computer and replaced it. But I don't think that should have removed the drive from the computer.

I tried "Add Hardware" in the Control Panel to see if it could find the CD/DVD drive. It could not. I also restarted Windows. That did not help either.

This is very strange.

 

Well, this is interesting. I had two thoughts about what the problem might be.

One is, I thought I might have some sort of virus. So I used Malwarebytes and, sure enough, it found one -- PUP.dealio. It deleted that one in the 23 places it occurred, including in the registry.

Then I rebooted, and checked the CD/DVD drive. It still did not appear in Device Manager.

Then I checked the BIOS, as PeteC suggested. I could not find anywhere that listed the drives in the BIOS, so could not tell if it was there or not. But since I have been having trouble with something clobbering my BIOS, I restored the default settings before logging out.

When I got back in Windows, I checked for the CD/DVD drive. It was there. I checked if it worked. It did.

For now, the problem is solved. What did it? I do not know. But it's 5:21 AM here and I have not slept yet. I'll turn in for some sleep now. When I wake up tomorrow, if the drive still works, I'll consider this resolved.

Thanks for the help.

 

Thanks for the link about dealio. That does not seem to be a likely culprit for this.

That leaves, as you say, a bit of a mystery. On the Windows Vista forum, markman helped me with a problem with my laptop not waking up from sleep. It looks like something is corrupting my BIOS, in that case and in this one. So I suspect that further problems are on their way.

 

That is nice to know.

 

Unfortunately, the problem with the optical disk drive returns sporadically. Just the same as my laptop going to sleep and then not waking up.

It seems like something is fooling with the BIOS. Or maybe there is some hardware problem with the BIOS.

I'll keep looking into this.

 

This problem still occurs from time to time. Usually Windows "sees" the disk drive if I restore the defaults in the BIOS. Or after I have booted up the laptop in Linux, which is a dual boot that always sees the disk drive.

 

Seems your laptop is still infected.

Please read this and post in Malware and Virus Removal section.

 

Hi ! I think there will be a problem in your disk drive. In that you have lens, which has been damage so that you are not able to read your disk. In CD drive, only lens problem occurs.