Wow, this is pretty bad. I have a client’s Sony laptop in which she just purchased probably not even a week ago. Right now I’m trying to resolve a missing DVD-Rom drive after inserting a movie or doing anything with the DVD-Rom drive. I put Google to good use and found that there are many others having the same exact problem. This is pitiful as there is no fix in sight. Now that is just wrong, plain wrong, and more wrong and more wrong. I’m rather upset at the fact that Microsoft would let this slip for so long. Also there isn’t much talk about it other than many posts on the Vista newsgroups. I’m wondering why no bigger site has bothered to report on this flaw in Vista.
This is just another reason to chock towards not upgrading to Vista. I’m still running XP and plan to for some time. I’m not bashing Vista, there are its pros over XP but at the same time there seem to be much more cons.
I’m going to go do more research on this and if I figure something out you know I’ll post it here. Otherwise, if you find something out, feel free to share that info with me. Thanks.
UPDATE
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
Apparently it seems that this is an age old fix for even XP systems. If you venture to the registry key above by doing the following steps:
- Click on the start menu.
- If this is a Vista machine in the search box type in “regedit” without the quotation marks.
- Maximize the HKLM and then go ahead and browse until you reach the key listed above.
- In the right panel you’ll see something along the lines of “UpperFilter” and “LowerFilter” you want to click on each “filter” key and hit delete. Click yes when it asks to confirm if you wish to delete the key.
- Restart Windows.
- Let me know if this works.
UPDATE: 10/27/07
In the case that you’ve deleted both the upper and lower filters and also removed the device through device manager and you still are unable to read CDs or DVDs, this may indicate that your drive is bad and or your motherboard is bad.
If your computer is relatively new, I would think that it is a drive problem. If your computer is relatively old, then I would think it may be a bad motherboard.
A good way to check if your drive is still good is to “boot” from it. What I mean by this is to restart your computer, find your boot menu and tell it to boot from CD.
You will need a bootable CD. I often use a Windows installation disk. Or if you have something like Memtest or the Hitachi Drive Fitness test you can use those.
Yeah, me to with the XP. I bought a 17″ HP DV9040 Laptop that had Windows XP Multimedia on it. The computer inexpensive but still came with lots of cool gizmos (including a built-in webcam, the ability to receive tv signal on the computer, cable hook-ups, surround sound, tons of hard drive (240 GB), Plenty of RAM, cd ^ dvd writer with a program that etches whatever you like into the top of the cd/dvd, etc. And I even got it at a great price. ANYWAY, I got it back in Sept or Oct and when it was purchased I was promised a freed upgrade to Vista as soon as Vista ready. I have yet to take them up on their generous offer,because my windows XP Media Center works great still. And it seems as though all of the Vista bugt are still very much being worked out. At some point, microsoft will just quit selling XP so that people will have to buy Vista I think. But I have it for now, and that’s all that matters.
I have windows Vista and had the message that my cd driver was
missing. I did the steps that you indicated and it works perfect. Thank you !!! you are a life saver!!!
Maximize the HKLM path is not found in Windows Vista, is there a fix for pepole already running Vista OS?
Thanks
Drema
Hmm, that’s strange. Would it be possible for you to take a screen shot if the screen when you use regedit?
Windows Vista – Missing CD/DVD-Rom drive … too bad we do not know who provided the information but the regedit solution worked for me.
For the DVD-Rom drive - regedit solution worked for me. If I had listened to my manufacturer support team, I would have to reinstall Windows Vista again! Thanks mate.
cheers worked like a treath
thank you so much,i try what you said and finally i found it my dvd room again
OK, I found the same solution on MS’s owm homepage for the same problem..
I’m folowing the instructions but find no upper or lower filters..
The only matching stringtype for “REG_MULTI_SZ” is named “IconPath” and the data says “%SystemRoot%\System32\imageres.dll,-30″.
I’ve tried to eksport, delete and import it again (with many reboots along the way) but nothings seems to help..
The DVD-drive just went missing after one reboot after long weeks of perfekt use..
NB. The Drivers apear to be working and the DVD drive is not missing in the list of hardware and their drivers.. (in Danish: Enhedshåndtering)
NB. I’m using VISTA Home Premium (DK), and I’ve got no problems so far accept this..
Kaare,
Try removing the upper and lower filters instead of anything else.
I had the same problem with the disappearing DVD drive using a new Toshiba Satellite laptop running Vista. The posted solution worked beautifully. Thanks…..
Hi,
I had the same problem with my acer 5630 notebook (vista version) when I removed the Upperfilter and the lowerfilter my dvdrom player came back. BUT i lost my touchpad and keyboard instead!
I dont now what to do. I restored my notebook but my dvd rom player went dead again! So you understand I dont want to remove any filter what so ever ’cause a keyboard is really annoying to miss.
Can anyone help me pleeeeaaaassseee!
hi,
thanks, registry solution works fine. just be carefull to delete the key from the right directory, their names are to similar
You sir a genius!
The thing is, I dont have an upperfilter option, only lowerfilter. I tried just deleting that and nothing happened.
Tim,
In that case, more often than not, just deleting whatever filter be it “upper” or “lower” should have an impact. Have you restarted your computer?
Works like a charm! Running Windows Vista Ultimate, often experienced problems with my CD and DVD drives disappearing when inserting disc, plagued me for weeks then I finally got annoyed enough to find a fix, worked great!
Did a restart but the drives dont show up at all, not even in device manager. Im running a Vista upgrade on a HP m7350n.
Thanks so much! This really made my day and people like you really warm my heart for sharing knowledge!
My drives have been missing for about 2 weeks, and I wasnt really prepared to do ANOTHER install of Vista Home Premium - The above Regedit procedure WORKS.
The XP version of this fix doesnt work on Vista, although advised by Microsoft saying it does.
C’mon Microsoft, get these bugs sorted!
Many thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the tip - this has been driving me crazy and it worked perfectly-
Thanks a lot.
now i am very happy that my DVD rw is running. the regedit helped me to solve this problem
I want to kiss your feet!
I was truly done for.
I was trying out vista for the 30 day that Bill gives us.
When I lost my disc drives, wait, 30 days of OS, then because of the OS I can’t put another one on.
This is an awesome fix, surly the f**kers at microsoft should be doing these fixes with the millions of error reports they get on it.
Thank you so much.
test
i have a new laptop with factory installed vista HP DV?? series and up to date spyware and antivirus software. ive recently installed itunes and i dont know but it seems like there are numerous things happening
-task bar will not unlock
-cd/dvd drive not recognised (havent gotten a chance to try fix)
-startup status/performance application not coming up anymore
-recent documents/programs arent on start menu (just blank area, “store a list of recent programs and documents is checked under properties”
-settings on games restore to default after closing
i dont think all of these problems would be because of itunes but who knows. ive done sweeps and they have found nothing havent noticed any performance changes and there are no weird applications in processes.
any input would help, thanks in advance.
fyi i didnt know the vista restore function doesnt automatically create restore to dates so i dont have the aoption to restoring to a previous date were all these things werent happening. thanks again.
I tried the above mentioned fix but it didn’t work. It always comes back after a reboot for me but it’s quite annoying. I only had the “lower filter” so I deleted it. In it’s description to the right of it is had something about Anydvd. Which I did have installed. I uninstalled and followed the procedure but still the drive vanishes. Boo!!!
I have a similar problem,
My DVD drive is detected, I can read DVDs (movies, aplications and also the ones I had written earlier) but for some reason I can’t write any more dvds. Everytime I insert a blank DVD it does not detect it.
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance
thanks yo, this works great but now i have another problem. explorer stops responding ever second and after i let it restart itself it stops responding again…. hmm i guess i will just clean install vista…. i should have done that in the first place
I had the same problem as Steve and some of the others. I only had a LowerFilter. When deleted the DVD would work for a short period after boot up but then revert back to disappearing. This symptom led me to believe that something during Startup was causing the problem. So, using MsConfig, I disabled all startup items and it worked. CD opens and is available in My Comp. Now to just figure out what exactly is causing the problem during startup.
man i thank you so much for postin this man this helped me alot … i really thought i was done for lol … thanks
i had the same problem with windows vista.. even my virtual drive wasn’t dected…
thnkssssssssssss!!
@Dan
If your computer is freezing up I think it’s more of a software issue than anything to do with the DVD drive. Although it could also be a hardware issue. If a clean install does not fix it then you may be dealing with a hardware problem. Let me know if you need anything else.
worked fine on toshiba satellite running vista home basic
Thank you so much for this solution! I was so upset when this happened to me since it happened to my old computer, and i always had to restore the system, and I just got this new computer and I thought I shouldn’t restore it just for that, and that I just got this computer two weeks ago!! lol
It worked perfectley, thanks again
-Yoko
Wow, have had this new Dell computer for 2 weeks. I already had a hard drive crash, then after hours of tech support and having a guy come out to the house to fix it, I wind up losing My CD/DVD Roms. I tried the above solution and it works like a champ! Saved me hours of dealing with Dell again. Thanks.
Will
I have the same problem with the missing drive i am running ultimate and done the same in regedit and restarted my system but still only have one dvd drive instead of two.
If anybody has any other ideas would be apreciated.
Thanks.
Ian
My problem has been happened before a month until know my DVD Drive disappearing and I checked the drive manager its not listed there but when I refresh the list it appear but after restarting machine the problem return again and I have to do the same thing go to device manager and press again the check devices changes and the DVD drive appear etc…
P.S. : Windiws VISTA Ultimate !!!
I have done the deleting of the upper and lower filters and they are there for a minute and then after rebooting or using the drive they delete again. I am so frustrated and I am trying to get a software reloaded. It loaded the first cd & now the 2nd cd wont register. Please help me.
I work for a Technical Support Team, and this is really awesome! I used to recommend system recovery process all of the time, but when I found this site.. customer keeps an “issue resolve”! thanks!
Hi All.
A big thanx to the administration in this forum.
I have just bought my laptop, and got the problem.
I was about to cry, i have a 3 month vacation coming, without my pc.. but because of your hero action, it’ is up working.
Thx
I wish I could hug whoever came up with this fix! I have been stressing all day over the CD Rom troubles from Vista. Thank you so much! This worked miracles!!
Million thanks!!! I have a new Toshiba laptop and have been trying to fix this for weeks, I tried your fix without much hope but it worked miraculously!
Big kiss!
what do i do if it only shows lowerfilters not the upper
Mike,
If it only has lower filters, delete just the lower filter. That’s all.
Hi everyone,
Okay, I had my brand new labtop for 2 months now. My laptop is Acer Aspire Series 5100-3357.
I strongly believe that it’s iTune that caused this situation for me. It was when the battery ran low and then the machine has to restart all over again. I had to take iTunes out and i did everything from a system restore (which allows you go back and reverse the process).
I haven’t done anything yet because I was worried that I might ruin something. Now I looked at my laptop and I saw the Upper Filters for my machine.
What should I do????
Thanks Admin…
Cassandra
I have Vista (new PC) and my DVD/CD drive has always been sporadic. Even though the device manafer and the drivers appear to be working fine, it will not see ANY type of disc that I put in there. Any ideas? I have a feeling it may be a hardware problem?
Stu,
Have you tried doing this registry fix that I posted here? If not, try it. It may help. If you continue to have problems and it’s a relatively new computer, I suggest taking it in for warranty service.
Cassandra,
I suggest removing the upper filter and restarting your computer to check and see if it helped. Any program that takes control of your CD-Rom drive such as Nero, iTunes, Roxio, etc., can all have an impact on this missing drive problem. It surely doesn’t hurt to remove this particular registry key as long as you’re only removing the upper and lower filters (or either or depending on which one you have there in the registry).
Thanks Admin… This registry worked. I able to watch a dvd and hear music from a cd…
Thanks Admin your freakin’ awesome… i’m keeping this website in my favorites..
Another satisfied customer!
The registry deletion corrected the problem perfectly! I’ll be sure to spread the word.
Thanks so much, whoever posted!
We purchased two Acer Aspire 5100 series laptops that came with VISTA in March and installed the Epison Printers that came with this purchase. We then lost the CD-DVD rom drivers. After numerous calls to ACER (not to mention frustration!), we located your site and the above mention “fix” works!!! you are wonderful. THANK YOU
I followed your instructions but I can’t find the upper and lower filter in the right panel
I am running on windows ultimate
AWESOME! Thank you SO much. It works like a charm. Now I have to figure out how to fix my sound issue. My web will no longer play sound and the sound card appreas to be working fine?! Vista, love it.
thanks admin it worked
Hi
I did the regedit fix as told, double-checked and triple-checked, its correct but it still didn’t work. I still have this big red ‘no entry’ cross over my CD-Drive and I can’t access it.
Help!!
Wow, awsome, i would have thrown my laptop out the window if this didn’t work!
I am running Vista Home Premium, I tried the registry fix, but there is no upper or lower filters under the specified key……I am at a loss to fix my CD/DVD Drive. I have noticed people who downloaded Limewire have had problems - I downloaded Limewire Pro. I have uninstalled Limewire, and still have had no luck.
Any Suggestions?????
My vista premium had an upper filter, but no lower. I deleted it and it worked like a charm. You are a lifesaver.
Thanks for the fix. I can’t believe it worked. I’ve got Windows Vista Home Premium 32 bit. To find the filters, I followed his instructions, than used Find as there are so many things to scroll through otherwise.
I had this problem and made the changes to registry… worked fine. Now there also is the problem of ALL hired dvd movies freeze in media center after a couple of minutes. The light on the drive continues to flash?? ACER 5630 & Vista Ultimate. Not sure where to find fix for this?
Thanks man you are the best.Your solution worked perfect.But i think the new ‘’super” windows should not have this bug
Well, I deleted the registry filters (long ago) and I was able to get the driver running but the only thing that my driver reads is CD’s and no DVD what so ever….any solution for this….i’ve been going nuts for months and can get it running….
I had the same problem (in Vista Ultimate) and I was able to fix it by opening the Device Manager and clicking Action | Scan for hardware changes, and voila! my DVD drive was back…
the driver is there, but the driver is only able to read CD’s and no DVD’s….this means the driver si in teh device manager and functions but as a cd-rw driver and not a dvd/cd-rw driver….
t4g63,
It could be that your drive is defective. A lot of the time optical drives are able to read one format such as CD but not the other and vice versa. If you have a bootable DVD such as a Vista install disk you can try and boot from it and if it does then you can assume the drive is okay and that it’s a software issue. If it does not boot then you can safely assume that the drive is unable to read DVDs.
I have a Dell Dimension E520 that runs Vista Premium. I had the CD/DVD disappear. I went to Dell and downloaded their patch: Nothing, Nada.. Then I tried your fix with the regedit trick. First time it didn’t delete. Then I discovered that I had to be signed in as an Administrator. Once I did that, I had the filters,both upper and lower, and I could delete them. I first made a copy of the registery just in case something went terribly wrong.Then proceeded with your recomended fix. IT WORKED Now I have my drive back and I am a happy camper. THANK YOU ALL who contributed to this forum.
I deleted upperfilter but now i tunes is messed up. how do i get it back?
Same thing happened to me on a Toshiba Sattelite. I haven’t changed the registry yet - but I did try uninstalling itunes. The cd rom drive works again. So maybe it’s a conflict between vista and itunes. A conflict between apple and microsoft, you say? What a surprise. Wouldn’t put it past either of them to do something like this intentionally.
actually when you install itunes on vista it triggers the problem; what you can do is try the registry “fix” and delete the upper filters and the cd driver will work, but you will be unable to burn disks on itunes.
Ryan,
actually i tried booting using a dvd and nada….the thing does not read DVD’s (also tried using a vista driver upgrade DVD and same thing) I have assumed that the damm driver is not working properly and I will take my cpu to the retailer so they can give me a new one
I have the same problem with windows vista ultimate.Operation system was installed from boot DVD,but after install Windows Vista Ultimate can’t see CD-DVD Drive.Windows can’t find in My Computer,also not see in Device Manager.The Bios see CD DVD ROM,Windows Vista can’t find nowhere!Please help me if you can!!!
I have a Toshiba and my CD/DVD drive didnt show
I only had the lowerfilters reg key, After i deleted it and restarted my CD/DVD drive now shows
Thx to the poster
What is lower and upper filters?I deleted all keys-{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} in the right panel and restart my computer but CD missing…I can’t understand what’s the problem.My OS is windows vista ultimate.help me.
I only had the lower filters option in Windows Ultimate. I deleted that one and it works perfect. Thanks for that.
Pesho,
You should only delete an entry within that key. Be very careful as deleting the entire key can cause your computer to become unstable.
If you only have the lower or upper filter it does not matter, as long as you remove it it should bring your CD/DVD-ROM drive back.
ummm this totally works! thank you thank you thank you!
Ryan,thanks for help but in my Vista Ultimate I can’t see upper and lower filter.In folder “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
” there is 2 subfolders-0000 and Properties.Nobody in the forums talks for this subfolders.In the right panel I see registry keys-Type Reg_SZ and Reg_Binary.Please help me!I’m not blind man in my Vista Ultimate lower and upper filters does not exist!!!PLease help me!
Did the step above and worked for me. Appreciated, many thanks.
I can’t see upper and lower filter.In folder “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
” there is 2 subfolders-0000 and Properties.Nobody in the forums talks for this subfolders.In the right panel I see registry keys-Type Reg_SZ,Reg_Multi_SZ and Reg_Binary.Please help me!I’m not blind man in my Vista Ultimate lower and upper filters does not exist!!!Names of the keys are: Default,Class,ClassDesc,EnumPropPages,IconPath,Installer32,NoInstallClas,SilentInstall.In supfolder “0000″: Default,DriverDate,DriverDateData,DriverDesc,DriverVersion,InfPath,InfSection,MatchingDeviceId,ProviderName.
Am I onlyone in this forum with impossible problem? PLEASE HELP!I know I must delete registry but which registry??? “Lower and Upper filters” does not exist in my registry!!!Please Help me!!!
lost both my cd drives used ur reg fix perfect again
ur a hero, now the question is why? in the first place
thnx again
This comment was posted yesterday.
“Ryan,thanks for help but in my Vista Ultimate I can’t see upper and
lower filter.In folder
“HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlClass{4D36E965-E325-11ÂCE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
” there is 2 subfolders-0000 and Properties.”
Have you checked all the obvious stuff like the cables inside the computer and the drive itself? Maybe your problem is something simple. Sometimes we overlook the obvious.
I wouldn’t mess around in the registery if you can’t find the filters. If you delete the wrong thing you can really screw up the computer. I would check for other sources for the problem.
THANKYOU FOR THE FIX!!! Two days and nights getting stressed and uninstalling anything remotely DVD-ish, and it comes down to deleting 3 characters lol. Works fine now.
I got a new Acer laptop with Vista and the DVDs were working just fine. I installed some updates on windows b/c it asked for them and since then it hasn’t been working. I tried deleting both upper and lowerfilters but no luck. Any ideas?
This worked for me also - Many Thanks
It worked for me! The upper lace was not in there but the lower was. A reset and it was back! Thank you!
Worked perfectly, thanks so much. Any idea what can cause this?
LAF,
I suggest that since the update started your problem go back to the factory default settings and also delete the update. Restart the computer and see if that fixes the problem.
Go to Acer website and see if there is a mention of this problem with MirroSoft listed there. Back up everythihg before you go back to the factory defaults. That way if you have to restore it you will have a copy of all your valueavle stuff.
worked fine after a reboot
my computer did show 3 dvd drives (only have 2 installed) at first but after a few min it displayed the proper amount of dvd drive’s
vista Ultimate 32-bit
this worked for me too. Thanks. I only had one of the filters to delete.
Hello there! I deleted the Upper and Lower Filter like it says up at the top using ‘regedit’ method however I’m regretting it because my Itunes on which I have all my music is now telling me upon starting it up that “The registry settings used by Itunes for importing and burning DVD’s and CD’s is missing and that I need to reinstall Itunes.” Has anyone had this same issue or has an idea on how to fix this so this goes away? If so help would be appreciated. Thanks!
Hi i did what you said at the top but when i look in that location the uperrfilter and lowerfilter were not in that location. I used find and found them somewhere else but i don’t know if i should delete them or not please administrator help me. should i delete them or not?
ok my brother has the exact same notebook as me and everthing. His cd/dvd drive is fine and mine is not. he has teh upperfilter and lowerfilter in a different spot just like i do i don’t understand why is my cd/dvd drive missing and his is not?
Nice. The Reg key deletion worked like a charm. Thanks for the help!
Hello! I tried to do what it said up top and I do not see the lower or top filters…. All I see is on the left side a list of components. Please help me! I am so lost.
Hi, I just used the regedit solution on my Vista x64 and it saved my day. WOW - I am so happy.
I was thinking of reinstalling the OS. Thanks to this board I don’t have to.
Thank you!
Maybe somebody here might have an idea for me. I’ve experienced this problem once before and the reg fix worked for me.
Recently, I lost my drives again but this time, there’s not reg entry for me to delete because I’ve already done it once. I tried uninstalling iTunes because I don’t really use it anyways and rebooted several times. No luck.
In the device manager, I can see the drives but there is an error state on them saying “This device cannot start. (Code 10)”. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers and the device with no luck as well.
Found it very useful and it worked
Bull crap it made my windows vista crash so im just going back to xp vista is horrible!
Chris,
Sorry. You may have deleted the wrong registry key. Please guys, be careful when messing with the registry. Deleting the wrong key can and will leave your computer crippled.
Reije,
I think that may be an actual issue with the drive itself or a deeper issue. Try uninstalling any type of burning program you may have installed recently and re-installing it. That may have caused this to occur. Or even something that utilizes your burner (program).
Just wanted to say thanks for the info. I started with an IDE cd/dvd and this issue came up. Then I figured the drive was dead so I used that as an excuse to buy a sata cd/dvd and same thing happende (error code 39). Then I hit up google and found this thread, did the regedit and it is working fine now. Thanks again
Hi, I cannot get the fix to work for the same reason as Pesho (he posted above). I can’t find anything that says upper or lower limit in the folder. Please help! Maybe it’s because I’m using a desktop?
Thanks
Jon,
If you don’t have it then you can try uninstalling iTunes. I’m not sure what else it could be. Normally it has to do with this particular registry key. Make sure you updated to the newest available iTunes which was released a few days ago. Also make sure you’ve done ALL your Microsoft Updates through the Update program on your computer.
I was able to get the disc to work. I restarted my comp, and then i could see the drive. Before it disappeared, I uninstalled the driver and reinstalled it. This seemed to work for me because I was then able to read the disc that would previously cause my drive to disappear. Don’t know if its’ a long term fix though, I’ll post if I find anything else
I was experiencing the same problem. DVD’s not recognised. I was really scared to start deleting things, not being computer minded.
IT WORKED - thanks a million
Help! I too have this problem and would like to avoid a system restore. Here is my problem: I have an HP laptop with a clean install of Windows Vista Premium. I had itunes installed for a while but hadn’t tried to use the dvd player until this weekend - when i noticed it didn’t work and would not appear in my computer and there is even no cd/dvd player item in the device manager list. I called HP and they told me to remove the upper and lower filters as instructed above but it still didn’t work. Then i came upon this website and realized the issue may be itunes. So i uninstalled itunes and restarted the computer. It still didn’t work, but when i went back to the registry, the upper filter icon came back. So i deleted the upper registry and restarted the computer again. Still the same problem. I don’t want to do a system restore but it looks like i may have to. Any other suggestions? Thanks!
THANK-YOU, THANK-YOU THANKYOU, CAN’T BELIEVE IT WORKED SO EASILY AFTER DAYS TRYING TO GET THE DRIVER TO WORK LOVE YOU WHO EVER YOU ARE
To anyone who hasn’t yet found the answer.
I have………..google “cdgone” It works
good luck
Yes it works. thanks for the fix.
My young daughter asked me, “dad, why are you crying?”. As my DVD drive whirred to life, I replied….”because someone out there….cares.”
Okay, that didn’t really happen, but thanks for the fix….much appreciated
After months of stressing about my CD rom drives, at last I have fixed it with your wonderful tip. Who needs technical support when there are such wonderful people willing to share their knowledge.
THANK YOU. THANK YOU. Whoever you are.
Not a problem guys. That’s why I created Random Fix. I knew people out there would be searching for the same exact fix and even if I just helped one person, helping someone makes my day.
I still can’t figure out how to fix my problem. I did the registry fix the first time this happened and it fixed it but the same problem came back and there are no registry items for me to delete this time around as I’ve already done the fix. Any ideas?
Do you have iTunes installed? Is it the latest version? If not, download and install the latest version of iTunes by going to http://www.itunes.com. If you’ve already installed the latest version, un-install it and try re-installing it.
That worked. So anybody that runs into the same problem as me and you need to Re-fix the problem. Uninstall EVERYTHING that has to do with Apple and iTunes and completely delete the folders, reboot, reinstall iTunes, reboot, and the registry key will magically appear again so you can delete it, then reboot and then you’ll have your drives back.
2 days ago my dvd drive vanished i used the microsoft autofix tht deletes the upperfilter and lowerfilter then restarted my pc but my drive still didnt display on “my computer” i am usin xp home not vista any help would b gr8
Mmm weird. I tried it and my cd drives still aren’t showing up.
(Working on XP)
Meg,
Did you restart the computer? Also like someone mentioned a few posts up try and uninstalling iTunes and re-installing it. That may have played a part in this as well.
Also this was mainly moreso for Windows Vista. I haven’t really heard of it happening with XP as much as with Vista.
When was the last time you saw the CD drives in My Computer with XP? There’s the possibility that your drive(s) may be bad/broken.
This has happened to me a couple of times, and this fix solves it for a while. I also noticed this seems to be related to Shutdown hanging. Shutdown hangs, I cold boot, and when it comes up the drives are missing. Apply this fix, restart and all is well.
Amazing (not really I suppose) that Microsoft does nothing about this. But then, I guess they don’t care, they don’t have to. Sorta like the phone company of days gone by?
I have the Toshiba A135-S4427 runnung Vista Home Premium I can’t get my cd to work. I did the regedit and deleted the lower filter ( there was no upper)restarted 2 times still doesn’t play the cd. Tech support said to reinstall to factory, but I don’t want to lose 6 months of data…..any ideas???
I am running Vista ultimate 32 and have a NEC3520 DVD burner. Burning DVD’s and CD’s has never been a problem, as the matter of fact I’m burning a DVD while typing. However when I insert a written DVD/CD the system freezes for about 2 seconds whereafter the drive is gone. Uninstalling and reinstalling the device absolutely helps, it reappears in explorer and is usable for burning again. However inserting a written medium vanishes the drive again. In short: I can burn, but I can’t view.
No upper filters present, deleted lower filters.
Somehow I think it has something to do with the autoplay function, although reconfiguring and disabling does not help.
Any ideas concerning the autoplay function?
(Running Vista Home Premium) I tried this fix but to no avail, after reboot it still doesn’t recognise it. I mainly get this problem when I install a blank disc. I have recently installed DVD Decrypter but I have now uninstalled it (after I did a system restore).
Is there anything else that could possibly be? Only seems to happen to me with blank DVD’s.
RedMike,
Do you have iTunes installed? Try uninstalling iTunes and re-installing it and then removing the registry entries. That is what someone else did and was successful with this. I haven’t seen this particular problem with the blank DVD but I have seen it where once you burn a DVD and you attempt to read it, nothing happens.
So when you insert a blank DVD the drive will disappear?
It seems to be fairly random. Earlier I created a data DVD using Roxio and it was fine, but right after the drive disappeared, unresponsive, couldn’t even eject to get the DVD out until I restarted my laptop.
I don’t have iTunes installed. Could it be some clash with different programs using drive, or some kind of DRM voodoo? Thanks!
Hmm, do you have the actual Roxio CD? I would try uninstalling Roxio. Roxio is notorious for doing bad things to Windows in regards to the CD/DVD-ROM drives. Be it making them disappear completely (which in the case I actually experienced this recently) and making them non-functional. I would say try uninstalling Roxio if you can. Go with an alternative software like Nero. Nero you have to pay for but it’s well worth it.
Cool, thanks.
I’ve actually found a pretty ridiculous temporary fix. I did a further Google to the subject and found on a tech blog that if you put the OS to sleep, then wake again, the missing drive magically reappears. Mad! An otherwise brilliant OS, but have to love the quick n’dirty hack of this fix!
Same problem here on a Vista Business Edition HP Pavilion dv6000. After removing the lowerfilters (no upperfilters) I can now see the properties info of a CD-R, nothing on a DVD (no access) and can listen to audio CD’s. I get the chance to write to a blank CD-R but there is always a problem at the end. I also tried an external CD drive and external DVD drive and all have the same problems.
This one is really frustrating. There must be someting else running that is hosing the normal CD drive access via the driver.
We have a New Toshiba Laptop. Worked for us. Thanks!!!
Hi all, i am very very frustrated!!! About two weeks ago i bought a new Compaq Windows Vista CPU Tower and even though it claims it has the Roxio software already installed, and i did not receive any software to install it with the machine, each time i try to use it, it will not allow me to burn any Cd music, nor does Windows Media player, it says Drive not Detected on both places
Anyone have any ideas or help please!!!
Ionize, I’m having the same problem with my NEC ND2510A drive in Vista Ultimate 64. NEC support are useless and find it hard work replying to an email. My drive only seems to disappear when I insert a certain media type - TDK DVD-Rs. It’s fine when they’re blank and it’s fine to load other written media, but not these. The disks were burnt on the same drive under Windows 2000. I’m thinking my best bet is to install Windows 2000 on a dual-boot, get the files off the disks and store them somewhere else.
Bloody pain, this is.
The fact is much more than half of Vista’s annoyances are not actually microsoft related. Like this optical device malfunctioning, any multimedia application could turn out to be the culprit; so far I’ve seen Realplayer, Dvix, Sonic solutions, random dvd burning apps… (Yep, an incompatible tiny Codec pack can make your DVD disappear!)
I had the same problem, but didn’t find any upperfilter or lowerfilter in regedit. However, I did deactivate a few services from msconfig->start. Vista Side Bar, Welcome Screen and Daemon Tools. Daemon Tools is more likely to be the sinner than the two others, however I have not activated the two MS services yet, so any one of them could be the cause of the problem.
Okay, I officially love you.
Thank you so much.
My DVD drive missing problem started sometime after restored my Sony laptop to original… I went to install MS Office and no DVD Drive! Anyways, I tried to avoid the regedit fix by researching drivers and KB articles… no luck. I gave in, backed up my registry and followed the instructions. I wish I did this in the beginning and save a whole bunch of time… Thanks!
I have the similar problem as Red Mike.
I also created a data CD using Roxio and it was fine. I tried to burn another CD and it keep asking for an empty disk, regardless of whether if it was empty or not.
I have uninstall literally everything and I have tried the regedit steps with no success. I’ve unistall and reinstalled the driver too. Everytime I stick in any CD (empty or not) it thinks it is a blank disk and it ask me what I want to do with it. I’m able to burn stuff using windows, but the DVD drive no longer reads anything. Any ideas on this one?
Chiman, that is exactly what is happening on my laptop, the only thing to add is for some unknown reason I can play original audio cd’s still. Infuriatiing not being able to install software etc. I am still waiting in hope someone comes across a solution for this. Maybe Microsoft?
Well I have the same problem (iTunes/missing CD/DVD Drives) as above with the CD/DVD drives not being able to start (Vista Home Premium). I deleted the upper filters (no lower filters were shown) in registry and now CD/DVD is back, however iTunes won’t start - gives error that the “..registry settings used by the iTunes drivers for importing and burning CDs and DVDs are missing. This can happen as a result of installing CD Burning Software. Please reinstall iTunes.”
This whole d@#$ circus seems like a catch22 situation where Vista and iTunes are incompatible (in some cases). I suppose that re-installing iTunes will break the CD/DVD drives again… Arrrrgggh!
Anyone who has cracked this Rubik’s cube, please speak up..
P.
Paul,
It seems that if you deleted the filter then it stays deleted. So reinstall i-tunes and do a full shutdown of the computer for 2 minutes i-tunes then reloads. Then go get the newest drivers.To be sure I would restart the computer after I loaded the drivers also. Then open i-Tunes. Hopefully that resolves the problem.
It seems to be the usual thing in that Mircosoft wants to control your choise to burn CDs and he hates anything Apple. He would rather that you use a Microsoft product and control all that you do. Good luck
Mark,
Thanks for the comments - I will try this - when you say “get the newest drivers” do you mean search for new CD/DVD drivers? I had done that before and it always reported that there were “no better drivers” available than those installed.
Ont thing that I failed to note before was that despite the itunes message (in my post above, itunes DID start, though I haven’t tried to use it to burn any CDs yet…
Thanks Again.
Thank you very much for posting this invaluable fix, Ryan.
I was panicking up a storm when my brand new acer’s dvd drive vamoosed. I’d only got it out of the box this morning!
-ToneF-
Aloha and thank you guys for your comments and help.
I just want to say that working on computers for the past several years, I’ve noticed a common problem amongst laptop optical drives. I’ve noticed that they go bad, frequently. I notice that the symptoms that often display are unable to read certain disks be it DVD±R, or basic CDR disks.
If your drive is there in My Computer and it can read certain disks but not others, there is a high probability that the drive itself may be bad.
However, the basic and easiest troubleshooting is to remove the drive from device manager and another great, but yet easy troubleshooting procedure is to actually BOOT off of the drive.
If you have a bootable DVD (more than likely a copy of Windows Vista), or even a bootable CD (however in this case if your optical drive already reads CDs fine this would not help necessarily), you can find out whether or not the drive is bad or if it’s a software/Windows problem.
Paul,
There was a recent update for iTunes. Have you installed that? Was there any change/difference?
Ryan,
I am running the latest iTunes release (7.3.2.6). After running for a couple days, iTunes will now not start (again). The DVD/CD drives are however still visible. Re-installing the standalone version of QuickTime and rebooting allows iTunes to start but in a mode like it is a “fresh” install (asking to search for files, etc). CD/DVD drives still available, but iTunes can’t burn disks - says drivers are missing and asks to re-install iTunes. (deja vu all over again)
What a mess. I find it hard to believe that as big a problem as this apparently is for so many people, based on Google searches, not one single comment from Apple or Microsoft that addresses it.
Arrrrgggggghhhh!!
A million thank you’s. My DVD drive has gone missing three times now. It made me crazy and it went back to Toshiba twice and a local repair once. The second time I uninstalled iTunes and that worked too after I restored the whole computer. (to out of the box state), but that’s a pain in the butt!!!
This worked like a charm on my Vista Satellite.
I can’t thank you enough!!!!
Hi, same problem, but when I deleted the upper filter (there was no lower filter) and restarted, I still couldn’t see/use my nc-3500A dvd-drive. It’s not even in the device manager, but I can see it when I go into BIOS.
Scrolling through all these comments I see that other people still have the same problem. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Excellent Job. Worked like a charm
Hi there i have a similar issue, I have Vista 64Bit installed and I can see all of my drives, however, i can only read maybe one in 200 disks, it doesnt seem to like any kind of disc except original cd’s
it is a tempremental issue that sometimes reolves itself.
basically i insert a disc, it spins up and the light stays on…thats it nothing else, and any active windows hang until i eject the disc then every thing is fine.
I could not find the filters for the regfix as they werent listed in the keys.
My dvd drive is an NEC DVD RW DL - 3520 AW.
Im wondering if this is a general NEC compatability issue as when i reinstall and dual boot the drive works perfectly under XP and is visible in the bios, but in vista it just does weird things?
Ihave brand new cables as well as firmware for the drive as i thought these may be the culprits but still no joy.
Anyone got any ideas?
umm i have just received a computer preloaded with windows vista home premium and i never noticed until about a week later that the dvd drive doesn’t see the CD,on device manager it doesn’t disappear or anything like that and the drivers are fine, and it still doesn’t see the CDs. I even did the reg edit solution that has been said to work here repeatedly and like some people i only had the lower filters not the upper, and i deleted them and restarted my computer and still nothing! My Drive is TSSTcorp CD/DVDW TS-H652M ATA Device and please i need someones help! thnx.
Aman, same exact situation with you, I have a TS-L632M ATA internal drive, but also verified with two external drivea that reproduce the same symptoms. Hopefully someone will come across a real fix.
Tried the regestry fix on Vista home premium machine with same missing-DVD problem. HP Pavilion DV6375 with DVD±RW/CD±RW DL Lightscribe drive.
There was no upper filter entry inthe regestry, only lower filter. Deleted as suggested. Solution worked perfectly.
Thanks a million!
Beautiful fix man, I was super-ticked and couldn’t figure out what was wrong. You’re the tits man.
Sanctacaine - have you had any response from NEC? Not sure if you saw above your comment, but I’m experiencing the same problem on Vista x64 with my NEC ND2510A.
Re Previous post Mark.NEC RESPONSE.
Hi Mark, unf