Non-readable drivers for Windows 7

[regnier]

I'm not entirely sure why and I've looked around the internet for solutions for this problem and cannot fix it. I've built my own computer and am now installing Windows 7 for the OS, yet it will not accept the driver for my DvD...or any driver for that matter. It's incredibly frustrating because I've gone around and tried various things, but nothing seems to work. I've even bought a new DvD and the problem persists. This means there's either a problem with my Windows 7 or something in my BIOS is wrong. I doubt it is my BIOS because all I've changed were the raid settings and set up a raid 0.

[Azzaboi]

Are you working with a 32bit or 64bit (motherboard, cpu, and software including drivers have to support it)?

Also some motherboards won't work with newer hardware until you have flashed it's BIOS  to a later version which supports a newer hardware list. This can be a nightmare if your custom building and already have the device installed. Most end up working but not to it's full performance and offical drivers can sometimes refuse to work.

[regnier]

At the moment, I am running 64bit. Yeah, my BIOS is flashed to a more recent version. I have several drivers for several components except for my hard drives which windows 7 already has the driver pre-installed. I actually have two of them that I tried to set up into a raid0, but later removed one in order to find out whether a defective HD was causing it, but it wasn't.

[patio]

Hard drives and optical drives havent needed drivers since before WinME...
Clearly something is amiss here ...or we're not getting the full story here.

[patio]

And the advice above is the silliest thing i've read this Month BTW...

[Broni]

Hard drives and optical drives havent needed drivers since before WinME...

Since the above statement was posted around here 2,561,497 times, I think it should be pinned in big, red letters on the top of the main page

[Azzaboi]

Why is it silly? Flashing BIOS to support newer memory and hardware devices, etc, is commonly overlooked. I did it on my custom build to be able to support newer memory!

Hard drives and optical drives havent needed drivers since before WinME...

What, that's a false statement? The drivers are still needed, Microsoft just dumps a collection on their OS to attempt auto-installing, every hard drive and flash drive you plug in comes up new device detected, installing drivers. Aka: plug and pray! If the BIOS has plug n play disabled or does not support the device then Microsoft is screwed at helping.

Take a look at what comes with your Motherboard disc...
- Storage Controllers such as RAID controller drivers, etc

Lots of people sometimes miss installing their additional drivers. Ensure you have those.

If it's still not picking up on the device and your sure it's not the settings, faulty or cables connected incorrectly, I would suggest checking the PSU (power supply) is providing the device power and enough of it. Sometimes power hungry graphic cards, etc, draw the power away or the PSU isn't connected directly sharing low amps, or could be faulty. The device therefore might not show up.

Another issue maybe sharing conflicts. IRQ conflicts can occur when new hardware is installed or reconfigured. The device is attempting to share system resources with another and conflicting or running out of resources.

[BC_Programmer]

What, that's a false statement? The drivers are still needed, Microsoft just dumps a collection on their OS to attempt auto-installing, every hard drive and flash drive you plug in comes up new device detected, installing drivers. Aka: plug and pray! If the BIOS has plug n play disabled or does not support the device then Microsoft is screwed at helping.

there is no "collection" of drivers. it comes with a single ATAPI driver that works fine for all optical drives. Patio's implication was that they haven't needed 3rd party drivers- A.K.A: there is no "driver installation" step that any standard user could discern, which was patio's point here, since the OP clearly is able to identify a "DVD drive installation" step. Additionally, changing the "plug and Play OS Installed?" from Yes to No makes no difference in the ESCD tables, nor does it prevent ACPI or OS-controlled hardware resource management.

Take a look at what comes with your Motherboard disc...
- Storage Controllers such as RAID controller drivers, etc

Lots of people sometimes miss installing their additional drivers. Ensure you have those.

a motherboard disc is not going to come with Optical disk drivers. I suspect we are confused re: the original Posters request anyway. They state:

I've built my own computer and am now installing Windows 7 for the OS, yet it will not accept the driver for my DvD

The question is- Have they finished installing windows 7 and it isn't letting them use the DVD drive? or are they having problems installing windows in the first place as a result of the DVD drive not being booted to? Sometimes people will say "driver" when in fact they mean "drive" in which case this could simply be a boot order issue; it also could be a problem with SATA, but I think we can rule that out since Windows 7 comes with SATA drivers as well.

Another issue maybe sharing conflicts. IRQ conflicts can occur when new hardware is installed or reconfigured. The device is attempting to share system resources with another and conflicting or running out of resources.

he OS handles resource management when it boots. before that the BIOS does. unless you have a bajillion things installed there will always be enough IRQs to go around (unless you are using an ancient PC that doesn't remap IRQ 2 to about 255 virtual IRQs, but of course being the extreme gamer you are you are of course well aware of this), and DMA and IRQ problems are entirely redundant since the IDE/SATA controllers are essentially predefined to use IRQ 14 and 15 (primary & secondary respectively) can the BIOS/OS change this if necessary? Yes, but it won't be since it will simply assign other devices to other IRQs.

[Azzaboi]

Okay - thanks for the correction BC_Programmer.
Makes it's clearer, I've never encountered IRQ conflicts myself but heard they can rarely occur.