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Solve : DVD/CD-ROM drives disappeared after XP updates?

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Athlon 900MHz
384MB RAM
BenQ DVD-ROM (MODEL  16508)
Samsung CD-RW (model SW-208B)

apologies in advance about so much detail, but it probably covers some of the questions I’d be asked initially if I didn’t!

So.....

I'm fixing up a 10 – 12 year old PC I had lying about. I put XP Pro SP3 on it & everything worked fine until I installed loads of windows updates then both the optical drives disappeared from My Computer & System Info, & in DEVICE Manager now have the yellow circle & ! by them. The Samsung drive is listed by name & model, but the BenQ drive just says DVD-ROM 16X i.e. generic

Device Manager > DVD/CD-ROM drives > drive properties > driver tab > driver details shows the same for both drives:
.....system32\ DRIVERS\cdrom.sys
.....system32\ DRIVERS\imapi.sys
.....system32\ DRIVERS\redbook.sys
.....system32\ storprop.dll

I've tried:

  • running the add hardware wizard... I get "...cannot load driver.....may be corrupted or missing (code 39)" for both
  • physically removing the drives, rebooting, shutting down, then putting them back in & rebooting – didn’t help
  • deleting them from Device Manager then rebooting – it seemed to work....they reappeared there without the !s, but then a minute later the !s reappeared
  • disabling/re-enabling them
  • uninstalling/reinstalling in Device Manager
  • updating drivers....”no better driver found”
  • ROLLING back the drivers....”no driver files backed up for this device”
  • I set the  CD-ROM as 1st boot device in the BIOS & rebooted with the win XP CD in the drive & the comp started to go into the setup process, so it seemed like the drive was being recognised & working, but doesn’t if I've booted from the HDD into windows & put the win XP CD in
I don’t know which particular update caused the problem & there were so many of them that I'm very reluctant to uninstall them all (EVEN if I could without doing a fresh windows install) & then reinstall 1-by-1

I'm out of ideas, so any other suggestion very welcome!

TIA
JeffGo to Device Manager, click a "+" sign next to IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers.
You'll see two items:
- ATA Channel0 (or Primary Channel)
- ATA Channel1 (or Secondary Channel)
Right click on each of them, and click Uninstall. Confirm.
Restart Windows. They'll be automatically reinstalled.

If no joy-joy  DLoad and run This Patch...neither of those worked 

thanks anyway! If neither worked then you should track down and install the MBoard Chipset drivers for that MBoard...
Re-boot afterwards.See if any of these fixes work:

1. Uninstall the drive through Device Manager.
Restart computer. The drive will be automatically reinstalled.
or…

2. Delete Upper & Lower Filters
 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/982116
Restart computer.
or…

3. Download, and run Restore Missing CD Drive patch
Double click on cdgone.zip to unzip it.
Right click on cdgone.reg, click Merge.
Accept registry merge.
Restart computer.He already ran CDGone...from my link above...

                  Quote from: jeffk on May 11, 2013, 06:04:45 AM
Athlon 900MHz
384MB RAM...I'm fixing up a 10 – 12 year old PC I had lying about. I put XP Pro SP3 on it
Even if you get the CD's working, 384MB is no longer enough for WinXP-SP3, 1GB is about minimum.it does work, though it is agonisingly slow compared with a modern computer! it actually more than meets the minimum, & even the recommended, requirements for basic XP.....does adding the service packs etc onto that really make such a difference?

i'm having a clear out & am fixing this up to give to someone who doesn't have a PC & can't afford to buy one, so it’ll be better than nothing....maybe he'll put a bit more memory in when he can afford it
I tried all of those....no joy!

i'm thinking of the alternative windows approach - throw it out of a high window & see if improves it! 


Quote from: Allan on May 11, 2013, 10:08:23 AM
See if any of these fixes work:

1. Uninstall the drive through Device Manager.
Restart computer. The drive will be automatically reinstalled.
or…

2. Delete Upper & Lower Filters
 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/982116
Restart computer.
or…

3. Download, and run Restore Missing CD Drive patch
Double click on cdgone.zip to unzip it.
Right click on cdgone.reg, click Merge.
Accept registry merge.
Restart computer.
Quote from: jeffk on May 12, 2013, 02:52:14 AM
... requirements for basic XP.....does adding the service packs etc onto that really make such a difference?
...
All the new Services & Processes that are added require a lot more RAM.  Actually ran some tests on old machines...upgraded RAM from 512MB to 1GB...big difference.


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