Member Avatar for kunai_master

for the past few days i have been unable to make my optical drive read discs or do anything other than cause the computer to freeze. i have tried the drive with multiple different sata cables and in another computer, the drive works fine on the other computer but is unresponsive in my own. i dont use the drive very often so i am unsure as to when it stopped funtioning on my current build but at the moment the install of windows is a clean one, that was installed using it. typically what happens when i try to use it is the drive will get up to speed like normal, but then no autoplay shows up, so i will check my computer and the drive will show no capacity or that anything is in it, the loading bar will start but no matter how long i wait it never finishes, in addition, if i right click the drive the computer will freeze and explorer will stop responding. disconnecting the drive during such and instance will casue the computer to stabalize. what should i do?

my current setup is

windows 7 ultimate 64X
amd athlon 64 x dual core 3800
6144MB or ram
NVIDIA GeForce GT220
MSI Neo Mainboard

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by david.eytel

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Given the drive spins up and was shown to work in another PC (and SATA cables were swapped), the fault most often lies with the motherboard/controller, a Windows driver/filter conflict, or a shell-extension that blocks Explorer. Building on ’s driver point and ’s suggestion about the board connector, the following ordered checks separate hardware from OS causes and give safe recovery steps.

Verify hardware first: confirm the drive appears in the BIOS/UEFI. If BIOS does not see it, try a different SATA port and a different PSU power lead (not the same molex/SATA power adapter). If BIOS sees the drive, boot a Linux live USB or Windows PE from USB and test the optical drive there — a successful read outside Windows implicates the OS/driver layer; failure points back at the motherboard/power path.

Windows-level checks and quick fixes: inspect Device Manager under “DVD/CD-ROM drives” and “IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers” or “Storage controllers” for errors; uninstall the optical device entry and “Scan for hardware changes” so Windows reinstalls the driver. Check Event Viewer → System for atapi/disk timeouts when the freeze happens. A right-click/context-menu freeze is often caused by a shell extension or a filter driver from third-party burning software — test in Safe Mode (non-Microsoft shell extensions disabled) or under a new local admin account to see if the problem is per-user.

Registry filter removal (do this only after a full registry backup / restore point): open regedit and go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
If UpperFilters or LowerFilters values exist, export the key, then delete those values and reboot. Also update the motherboard chipset/SATA drivers and, if needed, the drive firmware using the drive on the working PC. If BIOS never detects the drive despite other ports/power leads, the motherboard connector/hardware is the most likely cause (as noted).

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Member Avatar for mjdodd

assuming the connecting cable port on your computer is Ok and the cable link seems to be so then it would appear that the compter on relaising that a drive has been connected is trying to find a way of responding to that drive. usually it does this by either using its own internal software drivers (eg as in IDE / SATA drives or even MSDOS etc but if your drive is not stantdard then it has to use a driver that is specific to that drive and if that is not available you will probably get the symptoms you have. I suggest see if you can find what driver should be loaded and if it is available. If that does not sort out the problem then it is likely there is an electrical , but unlikely as it operates elsewhere.
M

Member Avatar for legendster

Happened to me once with my old Samsung PATA Drive, found out my MOBO 's IDE connector was at fault, try having yours checked.

Member Avatar for david.eytel 
kunai_master... I am having the exact same issue that you had.  Would you mind telling me what the problem was?
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