CDRW/DVD Drives Not being found by Windows XP

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dennis
  • Start date Start date
D

Dennis

Strange. A friend and I installed XP on his Compaq
presario. Installation was virtually flawless...
Unfortunately, it takes approximately 2-21/2 minutes to
boot up including a suspicious looking black screen. Then,
as if by magic, the system suddenly springs to life and
loads windows. The main problem, however is that neither
the CDRW, nor the DVD drive show up in my computer or in
device manager. The truly odd part of this is that it
shows up in safe mode! We un-plugged the drives and re-
plugged them in. Same deal. Help!
 
This happens quite often if one of the third-party packages has been
uninstalled. They add references in the Registry for modules which they use,
and these references fail to be removed, leaving Windows unable to find the
files apparently needed for CD devices at the next boot. There is a simple
Registry patch to correct this (http://aumha.org/downloads/cdgone.zip).
Before using the patch, be sure to back up the Registry. After using the
patch and rebooting, the drives should reappear. Any third party package
that is still required will then need to be re-installed.

This problem also may arise if there is underlying trouble with the
Input-Output system of the machine: for example, interactions with
controllers like Promise or Highpoint, or with special drivers. It may be
worth trying a change in the DMA settings for the device in Control Panel |
System | Hardware | Device Manager. Under IDE controllers, double click on
the Primary or Secondary IDE Channel concerned, then click the tab for the
Advanced Settings page.
 
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