Both the CD/DVD-ROM AND CD-R/RW have "disappeared" from the PC

Help: Both the CD/DVD-ROM AND CD-R/RW have "disappeared" from the PC

Hello charlesvar, tonyT, noahdfear, markp62, and others,
Well the worse has happened this afternoon: both the cd/dvd rom and the cd-r/rw drives have disappeared from the folder My Computer; and they have both stopped opening the introduced disk in their drive trays! The Device Manager (Control Panal) indicates that the drivers are either MISSING or CORRUPT. I suspect a continuing assault by the 06/13/05 newdotnet infection, but can't prove it. I have located all four driver files in the Driver Cache (cdrom.sys, imapi.sys, redbook.sys, and storprop.dll); but extracting each and replacing the installed files with these Cache extracted files ACCOMPLISHES NOTHING.
Because the cd/dvd rom is not recognized, even the boot sequence is interrupted until I am told to push F1 to continue. The remaining PC functions appear intact. But I find it hard to believe that both drives just "died" at the same time.
Home PC specifications:
BRAND: DELL 4600 DESKTOP
PURCHASE: February 2004 <DELL PC only 16 months old>
SERVICE TAG: 1C96B41
EXPRESS SERVICE CODE: 2917787329
OPERATING SYSTEM:
MS WINDOWS XP HOME EDITION
VERSION 5.1.2600 with SP1
at purchase
SERVICE PACK 2 installed
09/23/04
CPU PROCESSOR: INTEL PENTIUM 4CPU 2.8 GHz
CPU PROCESSOR SPEED: 2.73 GHz
MEMORY(RAM): 512MB
HARD DRIVE: 40GB
CDROM-DVD: HL-DT-ST DVD-ROM GDR8162B <NOW NOT FUNCTIONAL AND NOT SEEN AS INSTALLED BY THE PC)
CD-R/RW: SAMSUNG CD-R/RW SW-252S <NOW NOT FUNCTIONAL AND NOT SEEN AS INSTALLED BY THE PC>

Anxious for help,
Sincerely,
Scott

 

My first (and only at the moment) suggestion is to go to device manager and remove them, shut down and physically disconnect them, then start back up. Now replace the drivers files again. Shut down and connect one, startup. Shut down connect the other and startup.

Let us know.

 

Help: Both the CD/DVD-ROM AND CD-R/RW have "disappeared" from the PC

Thanks for your suggestion noahdfear,
<suggestion is to go to device manager and remove them, shut down and physically disconnect them, then start back up. Now replace the drivers files again.>
Before I proceed you say "remove, physically disconnect, and replace again." I assume this does not require the Win XP reinstallation CD? Remember that I can't use either CD drive right now: CD/DVD or CD-R/-RW.
Await confirmation
TTFN,
Scott (who didn't ask for "all these problems ")

 

Hi Scott,

I assume this does not require the Win XP reinstallation CD? Remember that I can't use either CD drive right now: CD/DVD or CD-R/-RW.
Correct, any generic XP drivers are already on the HD with the OS.

Did you update the ROM driver and if so, where do you keep it? It should be on the drive and backed up.

Regards - Charles

 

Help: Both the CD/DVD-ROM AND CD-R/RW have "disappeared" from the PC

charlesvar and noahdfear,

I checked for updated drivers and no newer drivers were recognized. Copies of these drivers are stored both on the C: drive and on an external HD. When you and noahdfear say to "physically disconnect," what do you mean by this directive? There are no physical cables that I know about to these 2 CD drives: the CD/DVD-ROM and the CD-R/-RW. After uninstalling both at the device manager level they are "reinstalled" as soon as the reboot is completed! Is this what you all expect?

Note: I've totally unfamiliar with "messing around" with uninstalling drivers at the device manager level.

Sincerely,
Scott

 

Hi Scott,

I'm assuming that Dave wanted you to unplug the IDE cable ends and re-seat them inside the computer tower.

He's asking you to Uninstall the ROM devices in DM, re-booting and allowing XP to re-detect them. The drivers will be also re-detected and installed.

Is this what you all expect? So in a word, yes.

Regards - Charles

 

Help: Both the CD/DVD-ROM AND CD-R/RW have "disappeared" from the PC

Charlesvar and noahdfear,
Back from pulling the CD/DVD-ROM and CD-R/RW contact plugs (2 on each; one four pronged and other looks like a centipede with legs). The following statement is displayed when searching for New Hardware on Control Panel:
"Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Code 39)" The same message is also displayed on the Device Manager for each drive as noted from the beginning. Nothing has changed; neither drive is displayed on the My Computer screen.
Do either of you know what code 39 is?

During the last reboot after reinserting the contact cables (and on all previous reboots since yesterday afternoon) the black Dell logo screen with the long narrow rectangular window near the bottom quickly indicates that full loading has completed at this first level; then the reboot pauses for 10-20 seconds and the following text is displayed on fully black screen: "Primary Drive 1 not found. Strike F1 to continue (to load; for if I make this selection the Windows XP display finishes reboot promptly) or F2 to run Setup.

"Primary Drive 1 not found!" Do you all know what this statement indicates?

Setup is set to allow the C: drive to boot first. In the past before this problem, I had the CD-ROM set to boot first; the floppy A: drive to boot second; and the C: drive to boot third. But switched to permit the C: drive first priority since the CD-ROM was no longer recognized by the PC.

Am at a loss.
Sincerely appreciate your help,
Scott
PS: both drives work physically as they each open from the outside and make a very fine whirring sound at first when a CD is introduced. Then they become quiet.

 

I moved this over to Hardware, as better help can be found here.
Sorry, I have no suggestions right now.

 

When you disconnected the cables to the optical drives, the cable connected to the harddrive may have been knocked loose. Pull and reseat the cables to the harddrive.

Check that the cables to the CD-RW and CD/DVD are seated all the way. Probably best to get a flashlight and check carefully. Run your finger along the back of the "centipede ". The 4-pin (molex) power connectors can be hard to seat all the way, you may have to wiggle them a little to get them all the way home.

Also run your finger along the connections on the other end of the ribbon cables where they attach to the motherboard.

When you restart, if you get the same message, go to setup (press F2) and look for "Autodetect harddrives" (if setup has it), run that and say yes to the harddrive it finds. When you are finished, do "Save settings and Exit ".

Matt

 

Help: Both the CD/DVD-ROM AND CD-R/RW have "disappeared" from the PC

removed by author

 

Sorry, my mistake. Primary drive 1 is the not the HDD. The HDD is primary drive 0. Primary drive 1 will be one of the optical drives, whichever one is connected to the same cable as the HDD.

It might be time for some trial and error to see if the computer will recognise the drive again.

The ribbon cable that the HDD is connected to is on the Primary Controller. The other ribbon cable is on the Secondary Controller.

I would connect both optical drives to the secondary cable. One drive needs to be jumpered Master, the other as Slave...OR...both drives can be jumpered as CS (Cable Select). If you are not sure about the jumpers, look at the information label on the drive, find out the drive's manufacturer, go to the drive manufacturer's website and download the User Guide for the drive. Alternatively, an easier way may be to put the drive's model number into a Google search with "User guide" or "manual ", which may take you straight to it.

I have a feeling that the drive that is on the primary cable (controller) is jumpered incorrectly.

Let us know how that goes.
Matt

 

Thanks Matt,
For your latest suggestions.

One question: Both optical drives worked flawlessly until I noted their spontaneous dysfunction on Friday, the 17th when I inserted a recently "burned" CD and found that it would not load. I opened My Computer and saw that the two drives [D: and E:] were no longer recognized as being attached and available for access. Why should misconnection be the cause of the loss of the optical drives when no one entered the System Unit to misconnect them?

The sequence of trouble started first on Monday, the 13th with incomplete "newdotnet" spyware removal. I finally achieved full removal of "newdotnet" using a small downloaded program. That removed the newdotnet removal errors, but suddenly the optical drives "disappeared. "
The newdotnet removal file is named: uninstall4_50.exe and was downloaded for the web site: www.new.net/support/uninstall4_50.exe . While this program solved newdotnet incomplete removal maybe it created the nonrecognition of the two optical drives??? And added to this problem yesterday McAfee Security Center (for my firewall and virus surveillance) alerted me that the Firewall Updates would no longer install correctly. This is correct; I tried to update manually and received the same feedback.

The exact sequence of events since the 13th is hard to outline exactly. During this period (13th to 17th) I even downloaded and installed two Microsoft "patches." I doubt that I can remember which ones those were.

As you can see by now this is a complex situation
Sincerely,
Scott

 

The smallest of 3 problems solved

Matt,
My post of the 18th reported: "During the last reboot after reinserting the contact cables (and on all previous reboots since yesterday afternoon) the black Dell logo screen with the long narrow rectangular window near the bottom quickly indicates that full loading has completed at this first level; then the reboot pauses for 10-20 seconds and the following text is displayed on fully black screen: "Primary Drive 1 not found. Strike F1 to continue (to load; for if I make this selection the Windows XP display finishes reboot promptly) or F2 to run Setup. "Primary Drive 1 not found!" Do you all know what this statement indicates? "
Following your suggestion to return to F2 Setup I opened DRIVE CONFIGURATION; the Primary Slave Drive stated UNKNOWN; looking for another option to unknown I pushed the "-" button and the option OFF appeared; I selected OFF and upon reboot THE BOOT HANG ASKING FOR F1 OR F2 disappeared!
This I am sure was my error through ignorance; desperate to try anything to restore my optical drives I must have selected AUTO hoping for something better; but I received something worse.
So one down, but the big two still remain: 1)missing optical drives D: and E: and 2)failure of Firewall Updates to install (which I tested again after the OFF selection for the primary slave drive worked.)
Suggestions still desired.
Scott

 

Thanks a million

PeteC,
Hey, you are great searcher and finder!
Have downloaded the *.exe file and copied the MS information related to one of the two major problems. Will report back to this thread as more data becomes available. Certainly this is something NEW to try. I am heavily indebted to you and the other contributors. This web site is the BEST for assistance with PC Hell

Sincerely,
Scott

 

Some developments; but not "out of woods" yet

Good afternoon PeteC and Matt,
Following PeteC's suggestions (post #14) I opened the Microsoft website listed in his post, i.e., http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;320553
and followed method #1 as listed:
------------------------------------------
Method 1: Remove the registry entry
WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.
1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
3. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/System/CurrentControlSet/Control/Class/{4d36e965-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}
4. On the File menu, click Export.
5. In the File name box, type savedkey, and then click Save.
6. Click the REG_MULTI_SZ data type UpperFilters, and then click Delete on the Edit menu. When you are prompted to confirm the deletion, click Yes.
Note If this data type is missing, go to Method 2.<<<this VIP
7. Click the REG_MULTI_SZ data type LowerFilters, and then click Delete on the Edit menu. When you are prompted to confirm the deletion, click Yes.
8. Quit Registry Editor, and then restart the computer.
-------------------------------------------------------
Because UpperFilters was not PRESENT and even tho the instructions state "If this data type(meaning UpperFilters) is missing, go to Method 2" (I had already tried Method 2 several times and replacing the four drivers was not helpful) I decided to backup the specific Registry key and then deleted the LowerFilters.
I then rebooted and BOTH OPTICAL DRIVERS WERE PRESENT IN THE FOLDER MY COMPUTER!!!
I then tested the CD/DVD-ROM drive and it seemed to open "most" CDs (still uncertain if it was really restored), but the CD-R/-RW would not allow burning; a error window appeared stating I could not copy FireFox bookmark file, EVEN THO PRIOR TO THE 13TH I COPIED THIS FILE CONSTANTLY TO A CD-R!! This drive E: also would not recognize a blank CD-R when introduced into the drive.
My hypothesis at this point is the optical drives are missing and malfunctioning because of Registry errors! I then replaced the original backed up Key with the LowerFilters present and rebooted; both drives [D: and E:] promptly disappeared!! This is more complex than a Sherlock Holmes mystery.
OK gentlemen lets turn to the Registry for a solution. Does this mean that this thread should now go the the Registry gurus (if there are any?)
Give me some more help. By the way, even when the LowerFilters were deleted the McAfee Firewall Updates would still not install.
Continue to be perplexed; my earliest Registry saved and stored backup (late 2004) when reinstalled between the 13th and 17th did not solve this problem either.

Scott

 

Brief follow-up on zip file: XP_CD-DVD-fix.zip (6KB)

PeteC and Matt and other Readers,
Just finished installing and running the post title file; unfortunately the missing optical drivers failed to emerge. So do I now resort to the dreaded alternative of a Windows XP HE reinstallation? Can this be carried out over the existing XP OS or does the this XP OS have to be first uninstalled?

Sincerely, tired/done for the night,
Scott

 

Sick PC admitted to hospital at 11:00am PDT

Thank you Pete for your help,
I can't reinstall using the WinXP reinstallation CD because neither optical drive is currently recognized by my PC; these are two of the three problems that are causing me so much grief to the present time.
This morning I felt that WinBBS had done all that was humanly possible from a distant web posting location. I unplugged the Dell system unit and carried it to a local shop for some onsite professional evaluation. Am afraid format and reinstallation is the only cure for this "illness. "
I'll probably post once more to document an outcome. I really appreciate all the help the readers, posters, and BBS staff have provided, but sometimes emergency in-house care is the only option.
Sincerely,
Scott