CD/DVD drive has vanished !!!

[smcreds]

Hi guys, I am stuck big time and was wondering if anyone could help,
I have a Packard Bell EasyNote Laptop and the cd rom drive has just vanished. I have used the search feature here and cant find anything on it but it seems alot of people have had the same problem.
I have uninstalled all IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers from system manager and the computer does reinstall them and drivers when rebooted but still no cd drive.
I have defragmented the drive with no joy.
The drive is recognised in device manager and doesnt even have a yellow exclamation next to it, I have my XP disc and would like to do a new wipe and install but it wont read the disc from bios so I cant.
Oh and on a side note my usb drives have vanished aswell, but my cd drive is more important
Please help
Thanks

[Mickha]

Sounds like a hardware problem, as if it was a Windows issue it would still be recognised at boot up.
Have you set your BIOS to boot from the CD/DVD drive first?
The CD drive might still be listed in Device Manager but might not be recognised, if you go into Device Manager, uninstall it, then re-boot it should tell us if Windows acually recognises it.
Does the CD drive show up in the My Computer listings?

[tommytommy]

alright matey

I have had this issue with a few customers. I have mainly had the problem with Vista. but here is a fix for XP and this should work.

Microsoft Windows XP

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
3. In the navigation pane, locate and then click the following registry subkey:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet \Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
4. In the right pane, click UpperFilters.
   
   Note You may also see an UpperFilters.bak registry entry. You do not have to remove that entry. Click UpperFilters only. If you do not see the UpperFilters registry entry, you still might have to remove the LowerFilters registry entry. To do this, go to step 7.
5. On the Edit menu, click Delete.
6. When you are prompted to confirm the deletion, click Yes.
7. In the right pane, click LowerFilters.
8. On the Edit menu, click Delete.
9. When you are prompted to confirm the deletion, click Yes.
10. Exit Registry Editor.
11. Restart the computer.

[tommytommy]

also.. one of the main causes with this problem was installing Roxio i noticed.. thanks

[smcreds]

Hi guys thanks for replying,
I couldnt find the upper and lower filters but I used the search and found them and deleted them. Problem was still there so I will try again.
I havnt got Roxio installed in fact I uninstalled everything that it might have been (convert x to dvd, power iso, etc) still no joy.
I have been into bios and tried to boot from disc but it doesnt work,it just goes back to where you can choose hard drive, cd rom or diskette.

Its very strange but thanks for your efforts

[tommytommy]

ok mate not sure what else to suggest. The guide i sent usually fixes this problem. Sometimes the device manager can mis-lead. It could well be a faulty CD/DVD

[smcreds]

Originally Posted by tommytommy

ok mate not sure what else to suggest. The guide i sent usually fixes this problem. Sometimes the device manager can mis-lead. It could well be a faulty CD/DVD

I dont know much about laptops but would it be worth me taking it apart just to have a look inside?

[BL4K3Y]

Can you see the optical drive in Device Manager? If so, right click it, click properties and in one of the tabs (I can't remember which), there should be a button called "Populate. Click this and it shoud bring back a drive letter for your optical drive.

[tommytommy]

Originally Posted by smcreds

I dont know much about laptops but would it be worth me taking it apart just to have a look inside?

you don't need to take it apart for the CD/DVD drive buddy. There should either be a quick release switch or a couple of screws and the CD/DVD drive should slide out

[smcreds]

Originally Posted by blakey_8

Can you see the optical drive in Device Manager? If so, right click it, click properties and in one of the tabs (I can't remember which), there should be a button called "Populate. Click this and it shoud bring back a drive letter for your optical drive.

sorry no I cant see an optical drive but I think thats probably just me. Im using XP by the way. again thanks for the help