Member Avatar for actfray

Just bought a HP y6644p with Windows 7. DVD drive worked fine for a week, and then today it disappeared. I put in a CD and it wouldn't play. When I clicked on My Computer, the E drive was missing. I've run FixIt, Recovery Manager, and done numerous searches on the internet. None of the remedies have worked. I even did a system restore.

What next? Thanks!

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Brief summary tied to the thread: reported an HP y6644p whose DVD drive vanished after a week despite running FixIt, Recovery Manager and a System Restore. is right to divide the fault into driver/OS vs hardware, and ’s suggestion to use warranty support is sensible if the firmware/BIOS doesn't see the drive. The checklist below is ordered to isolate an OS-level problem (often fixable) from a hardware failure (warranty).

Start at firmware: reboot into the laptop BIOS/UEFI and see whether the optical device is listed. If the BIOS does not list the drive, the problem is almost certainly hardware (connector, power or the drive itself) and the machine should be serviced under warranty. If the BIOS does list the drive, proceed with Windows-side checks.

Windows-side checklist (in priority order): show hidden devices in Device Manager (View > Show hidden devices) and look under “DVD/CD-ROM drives” and “IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers”; remove any phantom entries, then uninstall the optical device and use Action > Scan for hardware changes. Check Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc) for a CD/DVD device. From an elevated Command Prompt run:

sfc /scannow

If the drive is still missing at the OS level, back up the registry and inspect the Class key for optical drives. Export this key first, then remove only the UpperFilters and LowerFilters values if present:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

Also temporarily remove any virtual-drive or burning software (Daemon Tools, Alcohol, Nero, etc.) since filter drivers from those apps commonly hide real drives.

Secondary tests and final steps: boot a Linux live USB or Windows PE environment to see if the drive is visible outside Windows; try an external USB DVD drive as a quick functional test. If BIOS is inconsistent or the drive is never seen outside Windows after the above checks, arrange HP warranty service—avoid opening an under-warranty laptop unless HP support advises it.

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Member Avatar for mjdodd

sounds to me like either a driver problem or a hardware electrical fault.
If device manager (with a restored driver) still cannot see the disk it sounds like hardware. Are all connections still in place, is the power supply providing volts at the disk drive, are the data cables secure?
Can you try an alternative drive and swap to see if that works.
if the cd actually goes round when you insert it it would seem that power is there!
M

Member Avatar for Rik_

Seeing as it's a new computer and it is giving you more than 1 problem, perhaps you should take it back to where you bought it from and complain!

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