Computer Hope

Hardware => Drivers => Topic started by: gbbg on April 16, 2014, 11:26:20 AM

Title: DVD drive shown as CD ROM in Device manager - not working!
Post by: gbbg on April 16, 2014, 11:26:20 AM
Greetings all!

The DVD RW drive on my HP Pavilion dv9700 series (9920us) is not working. Please find the relevant details below:

1. The drive is Model TS-L632N/HPMH - I think this is Toshiba?
2. It's detected in My Computer as HD-DVD ROM.
3. When I try to play a CD/DVD, the light comes on and spins but then shows "Please insert a disk into HD DVD-ROM Drive (F:).
4. The Device Manager detects it as a CD ROM and obviously the Windows generic driver doesn't work. The Device Manager picks it up as an "Unknown Device" and is shown as "NCB XYB09 QNKX SCSI CdRom Drive".

The driver is not available on the HP site, so tried the regedit option. I believe I deleted all the strings associated with the driver key!! Then tried the Microsoft tool, which must have installed the generic driver which causes the DVD drive to be recognised as a CD ROM instead. I tried the sfc /scannow as well and it shows that there are corrupt files, which could not be fixed. The laptop works well otherwise.

Please help! Where can I find the driver for the drive? How can I go about fixing this issue?
Title: Re: DVD drive shown as CD ROM in Device manager - not working!
Post by: Geek-9pm on April 16, 2014, 11:32:17 AM
Did it work at an earlier time?
How old is the drive? Maybe is is worn out.
You can get a cheap external drive for about $25.
Replacement internal drives vary a lot in price. For a laptop, about $35.
Title: Re: DVD drive shown as CD ROM in Device manager - not working!
Post by: gbbg on April 16, 2014, 11:37:05 AM
Did it work at an earlier time?
How old is the drive? Maybe is is worn out.
You can get a cheap external drive for about $25.
Replacement internal drives vary a lot in price. For a laptop, about $35.

It's always worked fine. It's 4 years old but hasn't been used much. I think something happened when I installed itunes and a couple of other programs. Then I deleted the original driver by mistake and here I am.

If there was a problem with the DVD drive, why does Device Manager show it's a CD ROM?
Title: Re: DVD drive shown as CD ROM in Device manager - not working!
Post by: Allan on April 16, 2014, 11:49:46 AM
Optical drives don't require drivers. What happens when you try to use it?

Here are some things to try:

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.
or…

4. Go 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.
Title: Re: DVD drive shown as CD ROM in Device manager - not working!
Post by: gbbg on April 16, 2014, 12:13:31 PM
Hi Allan,
Thanks for the speedy response. I have already tried your first two suggestions without any success. A couple of questions regarding your third and 4th suggestions:

- Where do I download the cdgone.zip file?
- I didn't see any ATA Channels in Device Manager, just two IDE channels - should I uninstall them?
Title: Re: DVD drive shown as CD ROM in Device manager - not working!
Post by: Allan on April 16, 2014, 12:23:45 PM
You know what? Let's try this first: insert a bootable disc into the drive and reboot (make sure the optical drive is the first device in the bios boot device order). Does the system see the drive at boot?
Title: Re: DVD drive shown as CD ROM in Device manager - not working!
Post by: gbbg on April 16, 2014, 02:02:24 PM
You know what? Let's try this first: insert a bootable disc into the drive and reboot (make sure the optical drive is the first device in the bios boot device order). Does the system see the drive at boot?

I put a DVD in the drive, restarted the laptop pressing F9 to get to the BIOS setup utility. I then changed the boot order to start with the CD ROM and restarted it. All along, it keeps thinking that it's a CD ROM rather than a DVD RW with Light Scribe.

The laptope started fine, though it took longer. However, the DVD still doesn't work and doesn't even recognise there is a disk in it!! Would dirty lens cause this?
Title: Re: DVD drive shown as CD ROM in Device manager - not working!
Post by: Allan on April 16, 2014, 02:20:00 PM
Is it a bootable disc?
Title: Re: DVD drive shown as CD ROM in Device manager - not working!
Post by: gbbg on April 16, 2014, 02:35:04 PM
Oops, no it was just a DVD. How do I make a boot disc?
Title: Re: DVD drive shown as CD ROM in Device manager - not working!
Post by: jackj on May 16, 2014, 04:04:48 AM
This should take you to support divers download: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareCategory?cc=ca&dlc=en&lc=en&product=3740562&
Title: Re: DVD drive shown as CD ROM in Device manager - not working!
Post by: patio on May 16, 2014, 06:49:38 AM
Feel free to ignore the Post above...
Title: Re: DVD drive shown as CD ROM in Device manager - not working!
Post by: Geek-9pm on May 16, 2014, 11:49:27 AM
Relevant link:
A CD /DVD drive can have different lasers for each type. One of the lasers has burnt out and does not respond.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/272630-32-drive-reading-dvds-reading-only
Title: Re: DVD drive shown as CD ROM in Device manager - not working!
Post by: patio on May 16, 2014, 12:48:46 PM
The other thing to keep in mind is that Windows by it's nature remembers what was in the drive last time it was used...
Therefore if the last disc was a CD it'll report the drive errantly as a CD drive...instead of what it is.

Just one of those quirks.
Title: Re: DVD drive shown as CD ROM in Device manager - not working!
Post by: BC_Programmer on May 17, 2014, 04:10:05 PM
The other thing to keep in mind is that Windows by it's nature remembers what was in the drive last time it was used...
Therefore if the last disc was a CD it'll report the drive errantly as a CD drive...instead of what it is.

Just one of those quirks.

Windows through to 2000 identified all Optical Disc Drives as Compact Disc or CD-ROM Drives.
Windows XP and Later correctly identify media types (XP) and/or drive types (Vista,7,8). Vista, 7, and 8 all correctly identify a drive as a DVD-RW Drive even with an Audio CD in the drive.


The Drive capabilities used to determine this are part of the built-in Driver. Interestingly, sometimes the Driver stack used for this purpose can become corrupted or otherwise encounter problems.

The Driver stack for the Optical Drive can be refreshed from device manager.

1. Enter Device Manager (Windows Key+R, devmgmt.msc <enter>
2. Find the Optical Drive. It will be in DVD/CD-ROM Drives or a similar node of the tree.
3. Right-click and choose Uninstall.
4. Reboot

When the system restarts it will reinstall the default Driver, this time re-writing the configuration entries. This could fix corruption caused by programs like registry cleaners (ironically) or even malware removal.

My only other guess for why this could be happening would be if one of the four lasers had failed. (CD read/write, DVD read/write), if the DVD laser fails for example it might be reporting itself as a CD-ROM drive, though that sort of functionality doesn't seem like something that would generally be added to a device. This is assuming that the OS calls it a CD-ROM drive even at My Computer, where it would (Vista and later) identify the appropriate capabilities as DVD-RW. If it is simply only readong CD-ROM discs than it is definitely what Geek-pm mentioned- a failure of one of the lasers.

Title: Re: DVD drive shown as CD ROM in Device manager - not working!
Post by: patio on May 17, 2014, 05:11:24 PM
So what i've seen happen time and time again is incorrect then ? ?