Corrupted CD/DVD drivers

[Diodorus]

Hi guys,
Here's the problem. My laptop no longer recognizes my cd and dvd drives. When I check Device Manager I have the dreaded yellow exclamation marks informing me I have corrupt drivers. I have uninstalled the devices and plug and play recognizes them on reboot but just reloads the corrupt drivers. I would reinstall XP but the computer cannot recognnize my drives to put the disc in. Catch 22.
I have considered a USB external drive. Does anyone know if I would or would not be able to reinstall with an external USB CD/DVD drice?
Any advice much appreciated.

O yeah I've tried a reset point, but I get a message that the computer cannot reset.
Also, Roxio CD Creater uinstall is the suspected culprit as to why the drives dissapeard

 

[BrandonSBCA]

I've used a USB Driver, I think it was an HP DVD Writer and it worked really good, I was able to hook it up to my PC and my brother's computer. I think that might be the best way of handling it. But then again, try to see if you can find updates to the drivers, maybe the ones you have are outdated and need updates.

 

[Diodorus]

thanks Brandon....I did get some updated drivers from driver guide.com and put them in C:\windows\system32, but still no cigar. I reinstalled my XP not all that long ago so I don't have tons of data I will have to backup.

 

[mike_n_herrin]

what laptop do you have and how old? mine is a HP pavillion and is about 5 years old and does NOT boot from a USB device. you will have to check in the BIOS/setup at startup (like by pressing F1 or maybe the DEL key or something else just after you turn on your laptop, and before the windows xp splash screen) to get into the BIOS/setup and see if you have the option to "boot from USB" or something like that.

you might even be able to boot from a USB flash drive, but i don't know if winXP setup will run off a USB drive. however the "catch 22" here is that if you can create a USB window xp setup thinger, you'd probably still need the XP cd to put it on the USB drive.

i do see this one page on making a USB drive bootable to install windows xp, but i've never done it so i have no idea how well it works: http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-6346-5928902.html

here is another method, but again i've not used it: http://www.weethet.nl/english/hardware_bootfromusbstick.php

 

[mike_n_herrin]

hey i just thought of something. if it's the drivers in windows...you should still be able to put your window's cd in the drive and have your computer boot form the cd before it gets to windows and then try to do a repair or reinstall of windows. if it's not the drivers and it's the cd/dvd drive then that wouldn't work. you'll still need to go into your BIOS and set it so it can boot from the cd/dvd drive. you just have to make the cd/dvd drive the first boot device (as opposed to the hard drive being the first boot device). your laptop might already be setup to run first from the cd/dvd drive. try that and see if it starts from the cd.

 

[Diodorus]

Thanks guys for the great suggestions. I have an older Compaq Evo N180 laptop. I've shopped a few USB drives online to check out that line of approach and it looks like my laptop doesn't have enough processor power to be able to use one. Fortunately there are three other computers in the house so I'm not missing my drives all that much. It's just that the problem is driving me nuts because I can't figure it out. I'll keep plugging away. Haven't done the bios and registry stuff yet. That will give me something to do waiting for the Colts/Patriots game. GO COLTS!! Thanks again for the help.

 

[mike_n_herrin]

I just looked up the specs on your laptop, which say:
Intel P-III-M 1.06 Ghz proc
256 MB RAM
30 GB hard drive
24xcd rom/8x dvd
32 MB video ram

what i don't see is how many USB ports you have or if they are 1.1 or 2.0 ports.

anyway i found on tigerdirect a rewritable cd drive/dvd readable USB drive for 169.99. it says it's compatible with Pentium systems with 64 MB of ram that have at least 2 free USB ports either 1.1 or 2.0. Compatible with windows Me/2000/XP. so if you have 2 USB ports it ought to work with your laptop.

here is the link:http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1238084&CatId=478

here is one that is just a cd/dvd readable drive for 131.99: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1238085&CatId=88

anyway, just thought i'd let ya know.

 

[Diodorus]

I want to thank all of you for your excellent help. I did get my XP disc to boot after I used my DVD drive instead of my cd rom drive. I tried using Recovery but didn't seem to get anywhere with it and just said F*** it, put in my "Wipe Drive" disc and started all over with a fresh hard drive and fresh install of XP. Computer's running fine now and I have my drives back and I'll not make the stupid mistake of trying to put an older version of Roxio on my laptop. Thanks again and again. You guys rock.
Love,
Dio

 

[provenlogic]

Try the following:

Start Registry Editor:

Start, Run and type in regedit then click ok.

Find the "UpperFilters" and "LowerFilters" (and "UpperFilters.bak" "LowerFilters.bak", if they exist) values under the following key in the registry, and delete them:

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

(it should only be about 5-7 down in the list).

Close Regedit.

Reboot.

You might need to reinstall any burning apps you have after doing this.

This is a common problem in XP.

Yep, you could have saved yourself a lot of trouble by following noelie's advice instead of formatting.

P.S.
Wasn't i the one that first told you about the upper and lower filters noelie?? Or was that someone else who had the same problem? I know i posted about them a while back for someone who had the exact same problem.

 

[bogatrice]

Try the following:

Start Registry Editor:

Start, Run and type in regedit then click ok.

Find the "UpperFilters" and "LowerFilters" (and "UpperFilters.bak" "LowerFilters.bak", if they exist) values under the following key in the registry, and delete them:

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

(it should only be about 5-7 down in the list).

Close Regedit.

Reboot.

You might need to reinstall any burning apps you have after doing this.

This is a common problem in XP.

OK, I've had this same problem on my desktop for about a month, and figured that my CD/DVD drives were gone for good. So I tried these registry changes, and now both drives are showing up under My Computer. So far, so good.

I managed to play a DVD a slightly different way than I usually do (it didn't just pop up on the screen when I put the DVD in). I still haven't been able to play a CD. Now, actually, it seems like DVDs are a little funky, too. Basically, all my media type programs seem to crash when there is a disc in the drives (WMP 10, Real player, older version of Musicmatch, older version of WinDVD). So are you saying I will I have to reinstall all of these? Do I delete them all through Add/Remove programs and then reinstall? For the Windows Media Player, if I were to just update to WMP 11, would that fix the WMP problem? I'm not a big computer guy, so I'm not sure how to proceed here.

Also, I backed up the registry before I deleted those entries, so if this doesn't all work, I can restore the entries and be no worse off than before I started the process...correct?


Thanks much!

UPDATE: I guess the media players are fucked up now, period. I can't play videos I already have on the computer with Real player, and Windows Media Player is acting weird for music files.

 

[mike_n_herrin]

But I'm sure you've posted it too - I think I posted this before as well - sure if you look around you'll see we've answered the same questions over and over again - is it Mike who's been putting up some kinda "number of times this question has been asked" factoid?

nopes it wasn't me. the only one it kinda bugs me at having to see asked all the time is the ********** ones. =) maybe someone could make that answer a sticky?