Vista disappearing DVD drive...help please you computer gurus

[VE7 Kilohertz]

Hi gang,

been having this problem for over half a year now and can't find a fix for it. Running Vista 32 bit on an Acer laptop and regularly the DVD rom drive disappears from "My Conputer" and it won't then recoginze any media in it. It also disappears in Device Manager. I have tried resintalling drivers (can't find any newer) tried removing the upper/lower filters in the reg., searched computer web sites and have found nothing.

Short of reinstalling Vista, do you have any thoughts on how to fix this. 

I can't go back to XP (wish I could) as the computer came with Vista and drivers aren't available for XP.

Thanks

Paul

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Have you reviewed the Acer Support Page Sections: Knowledge Base, Support Solutions, and Hot Topics

http://www.acerpanam.com/synapse/forms/portal20.cfm?website=AcerPanAm.com&siteid=7117&areaid=2&searchall=1

[Mike/W8BAC]

Hi Paul,

It sounds like the connection to the drive or possibly the drive chip set might be faulty. If the drive isn't answering the poll of devices in your device manager than communications between the drive and the computer are being disrupted somehow. Is this a removable (plug in) drive? It doesn't sound at all like a driver problem.

Mike

[W1AEX]

I've had this happen twice over the years. In one case, it was a bad crimp on the power connector to the drive which simply powered down the DVD drive when it decided not to conduct and made it disappear randomly. The other time it was a SATA cable that was not fully seated, which of course made the drive disappear when vibration randomly caused a break in the connection. Of course it could also be many other things, but I would check the integrity of the wiring for starters, and swap it out if you have other cables available. If it is an early SATA interface DVD drive, there were issues with them disappearing that were corrected with new firmware for the affected drives. If all else fails, you might want to see if a firmware upgrade for the DVD drive is available.

Good luck!

Rob AEX

[WB2YGF]

I had this happen on my first Vista PC which was a XP media center PC with Vista loaded (on a different drive).  I think it required a driver replacement or a regedit hack, but it was so long ago, I can't remember.  It was definitely not hardware because it worked fine with the XP drive installed.

Edit: I think this was the fix:

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

[VE7 Kilohertz]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the help. I pulled the drive out (it's a laptop) and found a screw missing on theback of the drive and a couple loose. I found the screw inside the drive, dumped itout and replaced it, blew out the compartment with compressed air put it all back together and ...no change. I had it working for about 2 hours after I discovered it wasn't showing up in BIOS, I reloaded factory BIOS settings and it reappeared for 2 hours, burned two disks, then when I inserted my PCMCIA card adaptor for my Flash card, it disappeared from My Computer. I have nuked the ATA drivers and reinstalled, same with the drive (when it appears in device mgr), thanks, I tried the reg edit with the filters...no change, well it worked for a few minutes.

Yes, saw the Acer web site, spent an hour on hold with Acer support, only to have them tell me (by one of the guys who MUST have worked for UPS at one time) it's out of warranty and I have to buy a new drive. He said go to the website and download new drivers...I challenged him to go there himself and find them and he wouldn't bite. These customer support people should be exposed to their own support sites before getting on the phones with the public. What a joke.

Anyway, still searching but in the meantime I bought a $40 D/L DVD Plextor external drive USB and it works fine, except of course it's an external box.

Thanks

Paul
 

[AB2EZ]

See attachment

Happy New Year!

Stu

[flintstone mop]

let's hope Vista disappears too. Like Windows ME

For everyone: Be careful blowing compressed air in computers or mother boards.
A microprocessor on a company server was toasted by the apparent ESD from the air blast.
I always gently vacuum the inside of my computers to suck out the dust bunnies and clear the airways for cooling the CPU. It's amazing the amount of dust floating around in the average home when the PC is on the floor.

Fred