[Imperfect]

It really doesn't get more detailed than the title; my DVD drive doesn't work. I have a Dell with Microsoft Windows XP Professional version 2002 with Service Pack 3. I don't know if that information is relevant to my topic, but I added it in case it is.

Part of my problem is that my DVD drive doesn't recognize discs; I can put a DVD (blank or containing information) in the drive but when I try to access the drive from the computer, it tells me that the drive is empty. I am also unable to burn discs with this drive. It hasn't been working for quite awhile now and I have no idea why, so any help I could get would be appreciated. (Is this a problem I can fix with this website or is it possible that the drive is just defected and will never work?)

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sounds like the lens is shot or maybe dirty ... you could try a dvdrom cleaner disk or the easiest thing would be to replace it...

Also if you have a bootable disk you could try booting up ( windows disk is bootable.... xp is a cd and vista a dvd ) just to see if it will read the disk..... you also could try going into safe mode ( tap the f8 key on start up and select safe mode from the menu ) and see if it will read there....

[shard92]

sounds like the lens is shot or maybe dirty ... you could try a dvdrom cleaner disk or the easiest thing would be to replace it...

Also if you have a bootable disk you could try booting up ( windows disk is bootable.... xp is a cd and vista a dvd ) just to see if it will read the disk..... you also could try going into safe mode ( tap the f8 key on start up and select safe mode from the menu ) and see if it will read there....

[Fenor]

The fact that you say it has 'been working for quite awhile now' tends me to believe that the drive is just worn out after repeated use. If that is the case, then the only thing you can do is replace the drive, but before you do that, give the following things a try and see if you have any success:

Let's have you uninstall the DVD-Drive and then have you reboot and let windows reinstall the drivers for it. To do this, do the following:

• Go to START-->RUN and type devmgmt.msc
• In the new window that appears, click the + symbol next to CD/DVD-ROM Drives.
• Locate the drive in question and right-click it and choose UNINSTALL.
• Once it's finishing uninstalling, reboot your computer.

Once it's rebooted, try putting a DVD in it again and see if the same thing happens.

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If after rebooting you are still having problems, try the following:

Click Start then Run and type regedit...click "Ok"

In the left pane, expand (click +) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, then SYSTEM, then CurrentControlSet, then Control, then Class, and click on {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

Right click on {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} and choose Export. Name this file "filters" and save it to your desktop. This file can be deleted when it is determined it is no longer needed.

In the right pane, if either UpperFilters or LowerFilters are present, right click on it and choose Delete...accept the deletion. Delete both if they are both present.

Close Registry Editor and reboot.

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If after doing that your drive still doesn't show up, please download CDGone from HERE. Once it's downloaded, extract the files to your desktop and open the READ ME FIRST.TXT file and follow the instructions there.

Post back with how things are going after doing the above.

Fenor

[Imperfect]

I did everything you (Fenor) said, and nothing seems to have improved. If anything, I think my problem may have gotten worse because now when I try to burn a CD, my computer tells me that it does not have any burning software. How do I fix this problem now? (If you could tell me how to be able to burn CDs again, with or without the DVD driver that would be great. Having a CD burner is more important to me than having the DVD drive, though I would prefer to have both. I think I might need to replace the drive (how would I do that?) but for now I would like to at least still be able to burn CDs.

[Imperfect]

OK, I merged my Filters.reg so that now I can burn discs again.......I guess I'm done here now because it seems that the only way to fix my DVD drive is to replace it, unless you have any other suggestions?