Member Avatar for fwbill

My Dell 4600 is 5 years old. The first problems were with the CD drives were not working properly and it was recognizing a CD drive that does not exist. It began saying that the PC was unstable with Roxio present. I deleted Roxio and that did not help. Then I tried removing the extra drive from device manager. It just reappeared. I tried several other things and now the device manager shows the 2 CD drives and the VOBID SCSI drive with exclamation points but they do not show up as drives in Explorer anymore and don't work at all. In addition, now it does not recognize my USB backup drive. Any suggestions? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

  • 5 Contributors
  • 4 Replies
  • 278 Views
  • 4 Days Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by Chell

Dani AI

Generated

The symptoms you describe (two optical devices plus a VOBID SCSI device with yellow marks, then USB failure) strongly suggest leftover/third‑party drivers from burning software plus corrupt device/filter entries — VOBID is the InstantDrive/virtual SCSI driver commonly installed by Pinnacle/Roxio-era suites and is known to interfere with real optical drives. (systemlookup.com)

Practical triage (safe, in order):

  1. Confirm the external USB drive on another PC and try a different cable / a powered USB port — this rules out a simple power/cable fault.
  2. Show and remove ghost/virtual devices: open an elevated command prompt, run set DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1 then devmgmt.msc; in Device Manager choose View → Show hidden devices and uninstall any dimmed/virtual CD or SCSI entries (look for VOBID/InstantDrive/other burning-suite items). Reboot and check. Microsoft documents the hidden-device workflow. (learn.microsoft.com)

If that doesn’t fix the optical drives, the next common step is the documented Microsoft repair for corrupted CD/DVD driver/filter entries (back up the registry and create a System Restore point first). After removing problematic filter/driver remnants, uninstall the optical device(s) in Device Manager and reboot so Windows can rebuild the driver stack. These are standard Microsoft troubleshooting steps for missing/flagged CD/DVD devices. (support.microsoft.com)

For the USB backup drive specifically: if it still won’t appear, uninstall USB controllers (under Universal Serial Bus controllers) and reboot, check Disk Management for an unassigned drive letter, and verify the drive has adequate power (many external drives need a powered hub or their own adapter). Microsoft’s USB troubleshooting article covers these exact steps. (learn.microsoft.com)

One more check because mentioned memory: failing RAM can produce odd, intermittent device/driver behaviour. Run a boot‑time memory tester (MemTest86) if the software/device fixes don’t work — it’s quick and conclusive for hardware memory faults. (memtest86.net)

Cautions: back up the registry and data, remove burning-suite software fully (Control Panel → Programs) before deleting drivers, and avoid BIOS flashing unless a vendor notes the update addresses this exact issue. If these steps fail, record Device Manager error codes/screenshots and run the Dell hardware diagnostics so hardware faults can be confirmed.

Recommended Answers

All 4 Replies

Member Avatar for starfireone

First: I would go to Dell website and see if I could find some up to date drivers for the operating system and hardware. Also see if they have a newer BIOS for you. You might want to consider flashing your BIOS to a newer one if they have one.

Are you running XP-SP3, 2000 or Vista? Make sure you have all of the latest service packs installed.

Member Avatar for 4th&3wood

Look in the Device Manager to see if there are any errors under DVD/CD-ROM. Double click on the drive and see if it is listed as working properly.

For the USB device, in Device Manager right click on the monitor icon at the top of the column and click on Scan for hardware changes. You might want to look for any errors in the Universal Serial Bus Controllers.

Member Avatar for caperjack

roxie sometimes causes errors in registry after removal .
try this .
Possible Solution......go to Start /run/ type in ,regedit.and do the following,go to file

and backup registry first before changing

There are 2 reg keys that can screw the device......remove them both and reboot......

The keys are:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325

-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} - "Upperfilters" and "Lowerfilters".

=========
also in my opinion,never update bios unless it says it has a fix in it for the problem you are having

Member Avatar for Chell

I had a very similar problem about a month ago with my Dell dimension 2400, it wasn't finding my CD ROM or my burner. Also had problems with usb ports. The problem ended up being my memory. I bought a new, larger stick of memory, replaced the old and like magic everything worked.
You might want to give it a try, it worked for me hopefully it will work for you. Good Luck Hon!

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.