Windows can't see CD or DVD drive but system bios does
I'm setting up a brand new Dell computer with Windows Vista, my customer has lots of older programs on CD-ROM that they want installed. They are mostly greeting card programs and I'm keeping track of which one I'm installing just in case any problems come up. I go to install the 12th program and all of the sudden the computer can't read the DVD drive. I reboot the computer but still no DVD drive. I go into Device Manager and the computer sees the drive but it has a problem (code 39). I search for a better driver but the system tells me that the latest driver is already installed. I shut it off and open the case and all the wires are fine (SATA Drive). I put everything back and boot up and enter set-up and sure enough the Bios sees the drive correctly but Windows refuses to see it. I download the latest firmware update from Dell but when I try to load the update it can't see any drive. I go into system restore and go back to the point before installing the last program from CD but that didn't do anything either.
I searched and came up with a registry fix for people that were running Windows XP and it worked for them. I create a system restore point and decided to try it out to see what would happen
[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
The system did not have UpperFilters listed only LowerFilters so I just went ahead and deleted the LowerFilters and restarted the system - It worked!
This worked for me, it may not work for you and anytime you mess with the registry bad things can happen, so back up the registry and give it a shot!
(07-25-2007)