Storage Solutions Urgent: Hardware failure or driver failure?

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Keane 16

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My notebook refuses to detect my DVD ROM drive; I can see it in the BIOS, but windows doesn't recognize it, and it shows up with a "?" in device manager. No drivers available anywhere.

Is it a case of hardware failure, or just a driver issue?

Thanks.
 
Keane 16 said:
My notebook refuses to detect my DVD ROM drive; I can see it in the BIOS, but windows doesn't recognize it, and it shows up with a "?" in device manager. No drivers available anywhere.

Is it a case of hardware failure, or just a driver issue?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Possibly hardware, cos AFAIK, most ROMS should work fine without any specific drivers. Try doing a disk image to save ur data and then reinstalling the OS? If it doesnt work, time to goto the service center :)
 
Windows XP right? It should work without any drivers. Try booting into Safe Mode and see if its recognized, else that drive is gone.
 
Windows XP right? It should work without any drivers. Try booting into Safe Mode and see if its recognized, else that drive is gone.
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umm, but then the bios shouldn't recognize it either

A DV drive can fail either coz of a weakened lens (in which case DVDs won't be read but the drive would at least show up)

OR

The bus connection/interface chips have failed (in which case it wouldn't show up in the BIOS either)

Try safe mode else a restore
 
Best way to check if the drive is kaput is to boot from it. If it boots, it is fine. If it doesn't it's not fine. :ohyeah:

Another trick that worked on XP (don't know about vista, is the device manager the same?) was to delete the drive from the device manager and reboot. XP reinstalls the drivers. More of a witchrafty solution but it did work sometimes.
 
I kinda get a similar prob in my machine as well. 2 SATA ports, HDDs are detected in all. add 3rd, detected in bios, works in DOS, was able to partition it and all. in windows, it simply does not detect, not even in device manager.

so my guess is Windows prob.
 
^It's booting from bootable discs. Is there anyway to fix this or do I need to reinstall Vista?

[OT]PS: How well does Mandriva work on Notebooks?[/OT]
 
All modern distros work fine with popular notebooks. Unless you have some obscure hardware combination you should be okay.
 
Try This:

1) Close all open programs

2) Click on Start, Run, and type REGEDIT and press Enter

3) Click on the plus signs (+) next to the following folders

* HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

* SYSTEM

* CurrentControlSet

* Control

* Class

* {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

4) This folder is the DVD/CD-ROM Drive Class Description in the registry. Look for any of the following names in the right hand column.

* UpperFilters

* LowerFilters

* UpperFilters.bak

* LowerFilters.bak

5) If any of the above keys shown in step 4 are listed, right-click on them and choose Delete

6) After deleting the keys, close the Registry Editor

7) Reboot your computer

worked for me. let me know.
 
why not give system restore a try..to maybe 10-15 days ago or to whatever point in time you remember your drive was working
 
Party Monger said:
uninstall/ remove the "?"

Restart, then search for new hardware..Shud work fine..
Click to expand...
That doesn't work.

Will try wingmysoul's method..

superczar, System Restore disabled..
 
If it doesnt work you can try disconnecting the drive and then start widows and restart and reconnect..

Also, if while removing from deice manager, if it shows remove driver, select remover, and try updating the driver from windows update..
 
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