DVD/RW Drive Missing.

Yesterday, I made the mistake of letting my sister-in-law use my computer (the one I use for work) to burn a CD. I thought she said burn a DVD, which is something I do all the time. However, apparently she downloaded a CD ripping program called CDEX (very legitimate -- doubtful of any viruses). In the process of ripping her CD to the desktop, the program froze up. The disc would not eject from the disc drive. So she called me over -- I couldn't get it to eject, either. I tried restarting the computer, but to no avail. I stuck a paperclip in the slot below the eject button and manually opened it -- but now my disc drive is gone. Completely.

This is a new computer -- not even one year old yet. It's a Vostro 320 all-in-one desktop. It has Windows 7 and this is a DVD/RW drive. It is gone from the device manager completely. When I push the button to eject the disc drive, the light flashes green once, but never opens. If I manually open it and put a CD in there, nothing happens. It doesn't spin around like it normally does.

I looked online for a fix to this, and people say it happens frequently when you try to utilize a DVD/CD ripping program. I tried all the fixes suggested that I could find -- one had me clean out the registry via regedit for specific files that these DVD/CD ripping programs make -- I found the files mentioned, but it didn't fix it. Another fix tried to have my download an official Microsoft "FIX IT" program that diagnosis your problem and fixes it, but it told me that my "optical drives" weren't found.

I've tried various other things, to no avail. As a last resort, I think I'd have to reinstall windows -- but how can I do that if the CD drive won't even let me put a CD in it? And when I do get one in, nothing happens? I wouldn't want to delete everything off my computer, to be honest!

Also, normally I would just do a SYSTEM RESTORE to try and fix this -- but that's not working. Even in Safe Mode. It lets me pick a restore point, but then when it's done restoring it, it gives me an error saying that one of my virus protection programs needs to be turned off. I turned every virus program on my computer off, and it is still saying this. I've ran System Restore on this computer before with ALL of the virus programs running and it has worked, so I don't know what's going on now.

Does anyone know how to remedy either of these problems? The computer works fine, but I need that DVD/RW drive back!

Since you did not specify the registry entries you tried, did one include the UpperFilter or LowerFilter entries?

Are you showing any Virtual Drives installed?

My apologies -- yes, I went in there looking for the UpperFilter and LowerFilter entries. I cannot recall exactly, but there was only one -- I believe it was a LowerFilter entry. I deleted the single one I found.

I added this question late, but do you show any Virtual Drives listed? Is Daemon Tools installed?

You might try removing the drive in Device Manager and let Windows find it again.

Whoops. Missed that.

Yes, I downloaded the Daemon Tool device, as when I was researching someone recommended to do that as it would likely find the original CD drive and reinstall it automatically.

This did not happen. The virtual drive shows up -- but it never found my original one.

You are too fast for me.

Some folks will suggest removing Daemon Tools and the Virtual Drives.

I would suggest at least uninstalling the drive in Device Manager and let Windows find it again.

You might check the net for comments about Daemon Tools and how to uninstall, unless they have a tool for doing that.

Heh! Sorry about the swiftness.

Well, I tried that so to speak. After doing the virtual drive, I uninstalled it thinking, just as you mention, that it might find the original -- but it never did.

This computer is still under warranty, and I just spoke to the technician who is sending me a brand new CD drive. I was hoping not to have to resort to that, but if no other remedies work, then...

Did you try removing it in Device Manager?

Yes. Here is what I see now in the Disk Manager:



Not sure if that can be enlarged... here's the direct link:

http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/...or/rubbish.jpg

Sorry, I used the wrong phrase the second time.

Use Device Manager to uninstall the drive. On the Start menu search box, type devmgmt.msc

You might even shut down, physically remove the drive, then reboot. Shutdown again and reconnect the drive and reboot to see what happens.