Member Avatar for raela

My harddrive was failing so I replaced it with a 80 GB SSD to hold my OS (Windows 7) and a 2 TB SATA for everything else. Everything works fine only my DVD drive is not working when I click it windows explorer freezes, but I can open other windows and they will work. The DVD drive sais it is working properly in device manager. I have tried to uninstall the drive and it still is not working. The only time it freezes is when I click the DVD drive, so I don't know maybe things are not configured properly or something. I didn't realize the old drive was really only 1 drive partitioned, so now even my 2TB drive is larger than the old one; maybe I should take out or disable the SSD since it seems like they are not working together very well? Any suggestions will be appreciated.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by johhny-marshal

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A few focused checks will quickly show whether this is a hardware problem, an OS/driver issue, or a shell/Explorer hook.

As suggested, first confirm the drive type (SATA/IDE/USB). If it is SATA, swap the SATA cable and move the optical drive to a different motherboard SATA port (preferably one driven by the main chipset, not a third-party controller). Check BIOS to verify the drive is detected. Try a known-good disc and also try with no disc inserted (as noted, bad media can stall reads) and test the drive in another PC or with a USB-to-SATA adapter to rule out hardware.

If the drive works outside Windows but Explorer still freezes, focus on Windows-side causes: disable AutoPlay in Control Panel, perform a clean boot, or use a shell-extension tool to disable non-Microsoft Explorer extensions (third-party context handlers often hang Explorer when accessing drives). Check Event Viewer (Application and System) at the time of the freeze for explorer or disk I/O errors, and run sfc /scannow to rule out corrupt system files.

Also check Disk Management for drive-letter conflicts and assign a different letter to the optical drive if needed. A common Windows fix (back up the registry first) is to remove UpperFilters/LowerFilters under

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

if those values exist.

Quick ordered checklist:

  1. Confirm connection type, swap cable/port, test in another PC.
  2. Boot a Linux live USB or WinPE to verify hardware.
  3. Disable AutoPlay and non-Microsoft shell extensions; check Event Viewer.
  4. Change drive letter in Disk Management.
  5. Backup registry and remove UpperFilters/LowerFilters if present.
  6. Update motherboard chipset/SATA drivers and optical-drive firmware.

Following that sequence will isolate whether the problem is hardware, controller/driver related, or an Explorer/shell extension issue.

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Member Avatar for rubberman

Is the DVD drive a USB, Sata, or IDE device? This is important information.

Member Avatar for johhny-marshal

When you click on DVD drive, the DVD/CD has already been inserted or not ? I have come across the same problem but only when the DVD/CD is corrupted or scratched. The problem arises when you try to play any DVD/CD which is not compatible i.e corrupt/highly scratched.

Edited by johhny-marshal
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