Member Avatar for Richie176

Hi......both my CD drives dont work. I have a cd rom drive (D) and a cd rw drive (E). Neither of them read any type of disc, whether it be data, music, photos etc and i have tried these disc in another pc and they work fine. I am using OS windows xp. I have been down all the routes of device manager and it says everything is working. I have uninstalled the drives and then restarted my pc, and windows automatically detected them and installed them. I have also done a system restore and ran the troubleshooter. None of these helped. Please help me as I cannot even backup my pc. Thanks.

  • 5 Contributors
  • 11 Replies
  • 203 Views
  • 1 Year Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by jbennet

Dani AI

Generated

Short summary and next steps that add to the replies by , and without repeating what’s already been tried: when both drives are "seen" by Windows but refuse to read media the cause can be software-level filters or controller issues as often as it is purely mechanical. Work through the list below in order (don’t skip the registry/backups step).

  1. Quick hardware sanity checks — verify each drive appears in the BIOS/POST (if it isn’t visible to BIOS the problem is almost always power/cable/hardware). Reseat the drive power connector and data cable and try a different PSU cable or SATA/IDE port if available; timing conflicts between devices on the same ribbon can also cause both drives to misbehave. (seagate.com)

  2. If BIOS sees the drives but Windows still can’t read discs, reinstall the controller stack before replacing hardware: open Device Manager, show hidden devices, uninstall entries under IDE/ATAPI (ATA Channel 0/1 and any Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller) and reboot so Windows redetects them. This refresh often restores proper DMA and driver bindings. (support.microsoft.com)

  3. If that doesn’t help, fix the common registry-filter corruption that makes drives appear “present” but nonfunctional. Back up the registry or create a restore point first, then remove UpperFilters and LowerFilters from the CD/DVD class key and restart. A minimal .reg that many tech guides use looks like:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdr4_2K]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdralw2k]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdudf]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\UdfReadr]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}]
"UpperFilters"=-
"LowerFilters"=-

Follow the step-by-step Microsoft guidance when doing this. (support.microsoft.com)

  1. Extras to check: for burners missing the Recording tab, verify the IMAPI service and consult the Microsoft article for the "recordable device" registry fixes (KB316529). If Windows still fails but the same drive works in another PC, check for firmware updates from the drive maker or try a cheap external USB optical drive before buying a new internal unit. (forums.moneysavingexpert.com)

These steps cover the most common causes that weren’t fully addressed earlier in the thread (software/controller/registry). If none of this helps, the problem is most likely a failing mechanism or electronics and replacement is the pragmatic next step.

Recommended Answers

All 11 Replies

Member Avatar for zalakes

Did ur drives work b4, when did the problem start, did u install any new software or hadrives.

i faced a similar problem, firstly on the IDE cable. the first connector must go with the master cd drive, then the second connecter with the slave.

Member Avatar for Coconut Monkey

i faced a similar problem, firstly on the IDE cable. the first connector must go with the master cd drive, then the second connecter with the slave.

Also ensure the jumpers are set up correctly. However, since the drives are being detected in Windows, I don't think this is the problem.

Member Avatar for Richie176

Thanks for the reply....both of my drives worked before, and I havent added any more hardware or harddrives to my system. The only software I have installed is antivirus which are Avast and AVG. Which cables are the IDE cables, but I can not see how this can be a problem as I have not tampered with any internal cables, and all of my drives were previously working. The problem started about 2 weeks ago.

Member Avatar for zalakes

Im trying to get this right, you say they both arent working. My last ? is did they both stop reading cd's at the same time?

Member Avatar for zalakes

1 - Restart Your PC and try to boot from CD
If that works there is something wrong in ur windows installation try and re-install
ur drivers.

2 - If it does not boot from CD at all then there is something wrong with your ide
cable or port.

Member Avatar for Richie176

I can not boot from my cd drives. I tried both of them. How do i check to see if the ports are ok? Also I can not get my system restore to work as i tried to restore to an earlier time. Thanks for your time.

Member Avatar for zalakes

i suggest you get a new optical drive, bcoz i dont things ur 2 drives are working,

To check if ur IDE cable is working, put ur hardrive on that cable, and if it works then its definetly ur cd-drives that arent working

Member Avatar for Richie176

Thanks for your advice, i have just taken my drives apart and in my cd rw i found a paper clip (bloody kids) and now it works fine. The rom drive i just gave the lens a good vlean with some lint free cloth and that seems to be working fine now. Thank you again for your help.

Member Avatar for zalakes

good thing you thought of that, otherwise you would have wasted ur money

Member Avatar for pirate_pete

haha i had i prob like that , my desktop ,an emachines one day stopped dectating my cds so i looked in device manager and some how my working optical drives where uninstalled but detected so i tried to reinstall drives and it whoud not work ,i reintalled windows xp and they worked , also it whould not sys restore before , werid stuff

Member Avatar for jbennet

happened to my dad. some registry corruption cocked up his drives so XP could see them and said they were working fine, but they couldnt actually read disks

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.