DVD drive help

[beerbelly]

Please help, I'm in new territory here.
The driver for my Phillips DVD burner took a cr@p, wont read or write anything, and I've got the very special yellow exclamation point.
This is what I've tried so far: I tried to update the driver, but I'm told I have the most current driver (which doesn't work). I went to Dell and downloaded the driver,which doesn't want to overwrite my current driver. I went ahead and totally deleted the drive, and did a restart, and Windows recognized the new hardware, but installed it with the bad driver. I think what I need to do is find the bad driver, and make it go away before the restart, but I'm not sure how to do it.
I've been at this for 4 hours, please help!

[saphalline]

Safe Mode cures all! :D Well, most driver problems, anyway. That's the next thing I would try, if you haven't done so already.

Until you get it squared away, or you've determined that Safe Mode won't work, do all the steps you've just tried but in Safe Mode.

[Whyzman]

And, since you've been at this trying to fix...if you find multiple drivers in SAFEMODE, be sure to remove them all before rebooting...

[beerbelly]

Oops, sorry, should have mentioned that I tried that.
I'm stumped here, my next step is to install another drive (I have a new one for another system), and restore my back-up (recent).
Am I jumping the gun?

[Whyzman]

"jumping the gun?" No, I don't think so. If you've the ability to swap for a known good drive, that just eliminates a variable. The fewer variables, the easier to nail down the problem...

[jlreich]

"jumping the gun?" No, I don't think so. If you've the ability to swap for a known good drive, that just eliminates a variable. The fewer variables, the easier to nail down the problem...
Agreed. At the very least you will know if the drive is the problem.

[Sylvander]

Did the drive ever work with this Operating System?
Is the drive compatible with the OS?
Which OS is it?

"I think what I need to do is find the bad driver, and make it go away before the restart"
I think you're right.

"but I'm not sure how to do it."
You need to send the driver files to the recycle bin [available for restoring to their original location if necessary].
But how to find them? That's not something I've ever done.
Are there any drivers listed against the DVD burner in Device Manager?
[My CD-RW says no drivers are necessary!]
The ".inf" file is what specifies the settings to be put in the registry and where the driver files [if any] are to be put. You might search all the files on the c: drive for content equal to the name of the drive and see if any inf files come up.

By the way, if you intend to restore a backup, the hardware must then be the same as it was when the backup was made.
That backup will include registry settings that match the hardware as it was.
Otherwise, after restoring the backup, before booting Windows you must "repair" the Windows installation so it matches the new hardware setup.

[beerbelly]

Thanks for the help guys. I guess it's time to roll up my sleeves.


By the way, if you intend to restore a backup, the hardware must then be the same as it was when the backup was made.
Thanks Sylvander, I didn't know that, and it would have posed a problem since I installed a graphics card since the back-up.

Otherwise, after restoring the backup, before booting Windows you must "repair" the Windows installation so it matches the new hardware setup.
Unfortunately, I can't do that because it's a Dell, and they don't provide the disc. However, I did think about doing a "repair" and opened the envelope that came with the computer expecting to find a Windows disc, silly me. I called Dell and pitched a fit, and they claim they will send me one, we'll see.

edit: Sorry sylvander forgot about your questions. YYes the drive worked fine until yesterday. running XP Home SP2

[beerbelly]

"Bells going off!" If the hardware has to be the same, I cant restore the back-up with a different DVD drive!
Now what?................The way I see it, I wait to see if Dell truley sends me the disc, buy a new one, or,,,,,,,,,,I break out the the new XP Pro I also had stashed, and start from scratch. Or I just install the new drive and give up on the original (the drive is cheaper than Windows).
Anybody see any other options?

[Sylvander]

"Yes the drive worked fine until yesterday. running XP Home SP2"
Then surely all you need to do is restore at startup the "Last known good configuration" [made at the 1st boot of the day the problem was introduced]?
I don't know much about the XP version of Windows.
Previous versions of Windows [like Win98] restore only the configuration [registry + other files], and provided your driver files are unchanged and in the same location, then restoring the configuration should take you back to a working system.
Assuming the files HAD changed, then that might be catered for in XP because it [I believe] also restores important system files [like driver files?].
Even better, is if you have a backup of the whole system partition [is your backup one of those wonderful things?]
That would restore E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G and guarantee a working system [provided you don't have faulty hardware, and it's the same as when the backup was made].

[jlreich]

Installing a different CD/DVD drive will cause no problems when restoring a backup. Windows will detect the new drive and install the drivers for it as usual. The video card is be another issue. The drivers are not generic like CD/DVD drives are.

I would try the other drive in the current state to see if it is the drive itself first. If that drive works fine then the original drive is probably bad. If it doesn't work either, then it is most likely a software problem, or of course it wouldn't hurt to try another IDE cable to rule that out.

If it is a driver issue I would say that the driver has been corrupted somehow. And it would be necessary to get rid of it, reboot and let windows find a driver online when prompted. I will have to defer to someone else on how to delete the current driver properly though.

[Sylvander]

"Windows will detect the new drive and install the drivers for it as usual"
Doesn't beerbelly have a problem in that he doesn't have the Windows Installation files [on a CD or on the HDD]?
[I normally copy the Windows files to a partition on the HDD and install from there and leave them there (what a GREAT system, Windows automatically fetches from there).]
And Windows is apparently refusing to accept the OEM drivers.
I'm no expert, so bear with me. :)

[beerbelly]

You are right, I dont have an XP Home disc, and the driver I downloaded from Dell wont work. I couldn't find the driver on MS's site, and the Philips site is a nightmare to navagate.
Philips DVD+-RW DVD8631.

[Paul Komski]

On a modern system there should be no need to install specific drivers for ATA/ATAPI devices; the driver support as suggested is native. That however doesnt mean there are no resource conflicts or a software problem; but installing specific drivers shouldnt be necessary.

What message is given in Device Manager's Device Status?

If you can temporarily swap in a known good optical and it works then I would say the current one needs replacing. If you get the same problem then its almost certainly software.

Is the drive recognised in MyComputer but doesnt work - or is it not there and with no drive letter?

Try editing the registry to remove the upper and lower filters as per http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q314060

[beerbelly]

[IMG]http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/7583/screenshot0014fl.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
[IMG]http://img506.imageshack.us/img506/5685/screenshot0025ms.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

That's what I have.

[beerbelly]

Well, I lust hit a brick wall. I changed the DVD drive, and it's the same situation.
Even if I had a Windows disk it wouldn't do me any good, I can't run it.
Please dig down deep guys, I need a really creative solution here.

[Paul Komski]

Even if I had a Windows disk it wouldn't do me any good, I can't run it.
Well not from within Windows. You should be able to boot to an installation CD (or a boot floppy with CDROM support for that matter). That assumes its just windows corruption and not bad hardware, which seems unlikely.

You could try a repair installation http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm (which should set up all the hardware from scratch and leave your data and programs intact) if a more simple solution doesnt present itself.

If you didn't try the registry fix then you could try the fix at http://www.dougknox.com/xp/scripts_desc/xp_cd_dvd_fix.htm

[malcore]

I found this: (Please backup registry before editing)

Run REGEDIT, open up the following folders:

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

After clicking on {4D36E965-E325 -11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} you should see two settings on the right-hand side:
"Upperfilters"
"Lowerfilters"

Click on each of them, press DELETE and click YES.

Have you used or are using Easy CD Creator or Direct CD?

Info above from here: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;314060


Edit-Sorry Paul, a bit rusty, missed your previous link.

[beerbelly]

Thanks for the reply Paul.
I tried the registry fix, didn't work.
I looked into the repair fix, and again I need the Windows disc.
I've had it! I'm going to Wal-Mart right now and buying a flash drive to download the pictures I have, which is the only thing I can't back-up with CD's, then this hard drive is erase city. I'm going to install the copy of XP Pro that I have. Unfortunately, I'll have to buy another copy (luckily it's on sale) for the new rig.
Honestly, I really wanted to do this to this machine anyway, I'm just not jumping up and down about it costing $140. Thanks again Dell!

EDIT:Must have been typing at the same time. Malcore, I'll try that first. Thank you for the reply, and I'm sure RESEARCH.

[beerbelly]

Oh boy!
Now I'm getting a Windows error:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\SPOOL\DRIVERS\W32X86\3\dlbtjsw r.dll

EDIT:I cant make it go away (error), I can click "X" or "OK" and nothing happens.
EDIT#2: I missed that part of paul's post also, sorry. But with all of the warnings given,,,,,,,,,,,,this HD info is still bye-bye. I'm searching for the method to erase it. Notice the signature? ;)

[beerbelly]

I can't thank the fine people on this forum enough for all of the help that I've been given with this thread. It was a noble effort by all, but we are done here. Tomorrow, I start from scratch.

[saphalline]

Before you re-do anything, you might want to DL the drive manufacturer's diagnostics and run them. This whole problem could very well be a bad sector. In that case, the diagnostics utility will quarantine that sector so that it doesn't get used by the new installation.

[Whyzman]

I'm with saph, good idea to run the diagnostics just in case...

[beerbelly]

Will do, thanks for the advise.