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johnadamsgregory

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DVD Drive Disapeared

Hi,

My DVD Drive has disapeared from both my computer and device manager.

When I switch the computer on the DVD tray opens, but if a press the open button whilst using the computor nothing happens (tray does not open, no light)

If it may help my dvd is: Philips SDVD8311. Have tried re-installing the driver but did not find drivers for this model on the internet.

Also i am currently cleaning my system from a recent virus outbreak, and receiving help on another thread- and will be needing the dvd drive to get the system cleaned. Note that the dvd stoped working +- 1 week after the virus problem.

Any ideas?

Thanks

John
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Irwin Santos
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If the drive is seen in bios try this utility http://www.dougknox.com/xp/scripts_desc/xp_cd_dvd_fix.htm (it removes the upper and lower filters in the registry) i have used it many time to fix issue with optical drive dissappearing from my computer and device manger, if the exe doesnt work try the cdgone.rg utility thats included in the link.
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sugarfreeless

what os are you using windows 2000 or xp?  If either then do the following.

right click on my computer, left click on manage.

click on disk management.  If windows sees the dvd drive but it hasn't added it to the system a wizard will open.

follow to prompts to initialize the drive and it will be back in the system.
If the DVD is not being seen by the BIOS, get drastic, and force the BIOS to find it - or else.  Remove the hard disk, put the DVD in place of it, put the windows XP CD in the DVD drive, boot the system, and go into the BIOS, set it to boot from the CD/DVD choice, and reboot - you will either see a message "press enter to boot from CD" or not.  If not, the DVD drive died.  I suspect it is fine.  So if this boots, then return your HDD to the primary, and the DVD to the secondary, then work on fixing windows setup -- or else save your data to a different directory than my documents, then erase all in the windows and program files directories, and reinstall XP clean, it only takes 1 hour, and if you have all your data, just go through the job of reinstalling the apps (write down what they were before a clean install).
Take a look at this;

http://www.theeldergeek.com/enable_disable_dvd_player.htm

 [Start] [Run] [Regedit]
Registry Key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Player\Settings
Modify/Create the Value Name [EnableDVDUI] according to the Value Data listed below.
Data Type: REG_SZ [String Value] // Value Name: EnableDVDUI
Value Data: [No = Disabled / Yes = Enabled]
Exit Registry and Reboot

If it's a combo drive, it could be bad.
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nobus
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cool. thank you!
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Just a small follow up to the question.
 
 The problem seems indeed to have been a hardware one rather than software relate- but it wansn't exactly the DVD which failed...

  Couple of days after posting the question here, the mother-board of the computer burnt. The computer is in the repair shop now, and seems that once the mother-board problem is solved the dvd should work again- related problems.

  Thanks everyone for the help!
burnt??? oww.