Solved DVD drive disappears and reappears

[entropy3737]

I'm using vista 32bit home premium on a vaio laptop.

This week my DVD drive has stopped working and disappeared.

The DVD drive has disappeared.

Oddly enough, when I uninstalled and later reinstalled the DVD driver the drive temporarily reappeared for a day (so driver is current).

The DVD drive always responds to the physical eject button (so it is not a power issue).

Please help, happy new years.

 

[entropy3737]

I reinstalled again and it is not coming back now. I don't know what else to do.

 

[johngalt]

After reinstalling, did you perform Vista updates? Did you also by chance update any other programs?

 

[Brink]

Hello Entropy,

In addition to John's post above:

You might also check or replace the data cable on the drive. It may be loose or has gone bad.

You might see if installing the latest firmware software for your DVD drive may help any.

 

[entropy3737]

Thanks guys, but still my dvd driver has not returned.

I run periodic updates for programs automatically on this system, it is rather difficult to surmise which new updates corresponded with this problem (especially considering the drive may have disappeared weeks before I noticed it, lately I use this computer primarily for presentations).

I am unaware of the data cable and how to check it on an internal dvd player for a laptop, my searches on google on how to do this have turned up empty as well.

I have made new updates for the firmware of the dvd player.

I have made updates to vista just last night, after which I again reinstalled new drivers for the DVD player, all to no avail.

 

[Airbot]

You might have a physical problem with the drive itself....do you have a warranty? If so, I would take it back and have them test and fix it.

 

[entropy3737]

Warranty is long gone, and when it does 'reappear' it states in device mngr that the dvd player is working properly.

 

[dinesh]

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/201659-dvd-drive-icon-disappeared-computer-fix.html

 

[dfife]

I had this problem before and this fixed it for me:

You can no longer access the CD drive or the DVD drive, or you receive an error message after you remove a CD recording program or a DVD recording program in Windows: "error code 31"

Even though it says the fix is for XP, the same registry fix worked for Vista.

 

[dinesh]

I had this problem before and this fixed it for me:

You can no longer access the CD drive or the DVD drive, or you receive an error message after you remove a CD recording program or a DVD recording program in Windows: "error code 31"

Even though it says the fix is for XP, the same registry fix worked for Vista.

Thats what i provided.
And yes this registry fix is for win 2000 and higher...
I m glad that it worked for you.

 

[entropy3737]

Success.


Guys, I can't thank you enough for your time and advice; I was almost on the verge of shopping for an external dvd before Dinesh saved me.

I had ran across the xp fix in my google searches, yet since I'm running vista, and I'm not a 'Power User', I had falesely assumed that fix to not apply.

Thanks again for getting me up and running again.