[toarlach]

On my friend's laptop, she just recently encountered that her cd/dvd drive would not work.

I looked at it last night, and it works fine (opens, reads, etc.)...up until Windows Vista starts to load/run, which makes me think it's a software issue. The drive does not show up in "Computer" nor "Device Manager".

I went to the laptop manufacturer's website (HP) and went to the Support/Drivers page for the specific laptop (Select software and drivers HP Pavilion dv6700 CTO Entertainment Notebook PC - HP Customer Care (United States - English)) and cannot find any drivers for the CD/DVD rom.

I did also try reinstalling the chipset drivers (just to see if it was tethered into the motherboard) and still no such luck.

Any hints would be helpful?

[Albert Lionheart]

This can usually be fixed by editing the registry. Follow these instructions exactly and be very careful as you can render the machine inoperable if you damage the registry contents.

1. Click Start.
2. Click Run.
3. In the "open" field type REGEDIT.
4. Click OK.
5. Click "File" in the menu bar.
6. Click "Export" from the drop down menu this will open a new box.
7. click the down arrow beside "Save In" and select "Local Disk (c".
8. In the File Name field type BACKUP.REG.
9. Verify that under the ?Export Range?, that the radio button is beside "All".
10. Click Save.
11. Click the plus sign (+) beside HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
12. Click the plus sign (+) beside System.
13. Click the plus sign (+) beside CurrentControlSet.
14. Click the plus sign (+) beside Control.
15. Click the plus sign (+) beside Class.
16. In the left hand window pane click on {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} to select that key.
17. In the right hand window pane select the UpperFilters registry key and press the delete key on the keyboard.
18. Confirm with and OK.
19. In the right hand window pane select the LowerFilters registry key and press the delete key ont he keyboard.
20. Confirm with and OK.
21. Click the "X" in the upper right hand corner of the Registry Editor window to close it.
22. After this is completed, goto device manager and uninstall the drive. Turn off the PC and re boot it, and the drive should work again
NOTE: After you remove the Upperfilters value and the Lowerfilters value,
if you notice lost functionality in a particular program, such as CD recording software,
you may need to reinstall that software.

[Spleenharvester]

If the above doesn't work, try reflashing the drive with the appropriate firmware, I've fixed several drives both ways however.