DVD/CD-ROM Drives Not Working in Windows 7 – Fixes

optical-drivewindows 7

All of a sudden Windows 7 (64 bit) lost all DVD and CD-ROM drives. It worked fine for about a month, then I don't know what happened.

At first I thought it was a hardware problem – that my DVD-ROM had malfunctioned. But then I realized that Windows 7 no longer picked up on Demon Tools drives either. I can boot both Windows installation and Knoppix from the DVD-drive.

So it seems to be a general problem with "disc-media". When trying to reinstall the hardware DVD-ROM Windows recognizes the drive (though sometimes simply label it as "CD-ROM drive"), but then says something went wrong – with from what I understand is a default error message (39), claiming the driver has become corrupt.

I've tried every Microsoft recommended action, i.e. uninstall, reinstall, look for driver updates etc. etc., but with no luck.

Any tip most welcome!

Best Answer

It could be a bugged upper/lower filter set by a DVD/CD-rom application:

  1. Go to run (or hit Win+R), type Regedit and click OK.
  2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
  3. Right-click the key and Export it before making any changes
  4. In the details pane of Registry Editor, on the right side, delete UpperFilters and also LowerFilters.
  5. Restart your computer

(if it doesn't help, double-click the exported reg file and reboot to return to the previous state)

Other things to try:

  • Uninstall daemon tools and any other DVD/CD related tools (Remove StarForce, Remove Securom). One by one, with a reboot each time, to find the culprit
  • Use deviceremover to remove the culprit driver (and reinstall a good one). But be carefull with this advanced tool, it could damage your system
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