BleepingComputer.com: cd/dvd drive not showing up anywhere for 2 mos! at my wits end.

Hello,

For the past 2 months my Presario v3000 (XPsp3) CD/DVD optical drive does not show up in Windows Explorer, Device Manager, or System Information, EXCEPT for very occasionally, usually on a re-boot with a cd in the drive. A few days ago it showed up temporarily after I uninstalled my network adapter, and disappeared almost immediately in the middle of installing a program.

I have searched all over the internet and tried everything. Found many other people with the identical problem but nothing that works to fix it. I’ve done the upper/lower filters thing, run msfixit, updated drivers from HP, looked for drivers from the cd drive manufacturer, etc. I would very greatly appreciate any help; can usually find solutions but this time I am tearing my hair out.

EDIT: Removed all log data and attachment, not relevant to suspected hardware issues, HJT logs are malware tools and not permitted in this forum. No indication of malware issues ~ Hamluis.

This post has been edited by hamluis: 11 March 2011 - 11:08 AM

I hope someone else can help with possible conflicts etc...
Only thoughts I have would be to check to see if everything is plugged in nice and tight... and if you had access to another cd/dvd drive, I'd try it. I don't know if that's the way it would behave if there was something wrong with the drive itself but it would be worth testing if you could get your hands on another one. I have several old computers in my house, if you were in the area I'd lend or even give you one to try out.
Anyway... that's what I'd check, if you haven't already. Make sure all the wires are connected securely to the drive itself, and the motherboard. Then see if anyone you know has a drive you could borrow.

I understand the hair pulling thing...... hope you get it resolved soon.

thanks so much for responding. trying another drive is a great idea; I have an old pavillion that might use the same cd drive...will try that. I have taken the cd drive out and re-seated it several times, but did not know there were any wires I could check (didn't see any connected to the cd drive when I removed it). I'll check the connections today. thanks again!

This is one a note book(?). Correct?

Unless this is a very old lap top there are no wires\cables to check. The plug end on the drive is inserted directly into a socket on the motherboard.

Unplugging and plugging it back in is the first proper step in trouble shooting.

Let us know if the other drive works. Though I am doubting it will. Or there may be an adapter of sorts on both that will have to be swapped one to the other.

I am not reading all that but the first place I google suggested using a paperclip to eject the tray and this somehow reset ? the drive. They said it worked, what would you have to loose.

http://www.daniweb.com/hardware-and-software/pc-hardware/usb-devices-and-other-peripherals/threads/94448

Thanks for the responses.

Yes it is a Compaq Presario V3000 notebook running Win XP sp3. I've unplugged and plugged the CD drive back in more times than I can remember; have gotten quite procifient with the paper clip trick too.

I can't help but think that the PCI, NVIDEA, and Broadcom devices in the conflicts/sharing report (below) are somehow involved, because the ONLY time the CD drive has worked was right after I uninstalled them in Device Manager and rebooted. In fact, for the first time in ages, the CD Drive popped up immediately as "New Hardware" and actually worked for a few minutes. It disappeared again right around the time the NVIDEA and Broadcom devices popped up as "New Hardware" a few minutes later. It's like once the computer recognized them, it couldn't see the CD drive anymore.

I am not very knowledgeable about those kinds of issues. What do you guys think? Will let you know what happens with the other drive. Thanks again...Liliane


HARDWARE RESOURCES CONFLICT/SHARING REPORT

I/O Port 0x00000000-0x00000CF7 PCI bus
I/O Port 0x00000000-0x00000CF7 Direct memory access controller

IRQ 17 NVIDIA nForce 430/410 Serial ATA Controller
IRQ 17 Microsoft UAA Bus Driver for High Definition Audio

Memory Address 0xB3000000-0xB30FFFFF PCI standard PCI-to-PCI bridge
Memory Address 0xB3000000-0xB30FFFFF Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN

Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF PCI bus
Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF NVIDIA GeForce Go 6150

Being a laptop chances it has a spot in the back of the DVD/CD reader that physically seats into the motherboard inside the laptop and there aren't any wires running. I could be wrong though. I encountered a similar case before on a client's DVD drive, it had disappeared entirely because the firmware had been deleted/overwritten. Trouble is that it happened in such a way that windows XP still saw the unit but would not display in the Device Manager, or show the icon for the drive under My Computer. So you couldn't uninstall it because it wasn't there to uninstall, nor could you reinstall it because the drivers were technically already in the PC. It turns out it was an issue withe the XP windows registry that would block the DVD/CD drive from being seen. This was also a Compaq laptop.

I was able to fix it with the registry edit of the Upper/Lower filters, I see you've already tried that so I'm at a bit of a loss here.

You most likely wont find drivers for the DVD drive because HP/Compaq use firmware that comes bundled with most of their Lightscribe software.


My first idea would be to plug an external USB dvd drive in and see if that shows up, or if you can get your hands on an identical internal drive from ebay or a parts warehouse and try that out, see if it has the desired effect.

SUCCESS! I took the DVD drive out of my (non-bootable) Pavillion and switched it with the bad CD drive in the Presario...now everything works! Silly, silly me. I should have tried it before; was told the 2 drives were not interchangeable. Turns out they were, even though they are not exactly alike. That's a lesson to always double check and see for yourself! Can't believe I spent 2 mos. on this...ridiculous on my part.

Many thanks to everyone. You guys are wonderful to be here helping others.

Liliane

P.S. Now I have to start working on getting the Pavillion and MAC laptops inherited from my teenage son to boot up (he got an IPad). A kind soul from HP forums is sending me his extra set of Vista boot disks for the Pavillion. If they don't do it, I'll be back (in another category?). If they do work, I guess I'll be back asking about the MAC (never touched one ...have no clue). Thanks again!