DVD drive not visible in WinXP Prof

My external DVD drive has always been visible in Windows Explorer ... until today.
It is not visible in Device Manager and there are not yellow question marks.
I switched to another hard-drive on my laptop (Centrino 1.6) and the DVD drive was recognized each time I turned it on and off.
I attached it (USB 2) to my Celeron desktop (WinXP Home) and it was recognized.

I have tried what Microsoft recommends - delete the data in the registry for the device (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/320553/sd=RMVP#ELADAAA).

Any ideas?

 

You could try a system restore....if you have a recent restore point to use.

 

I had already tried restoring from a previous configuration ... didn't change anything.
Would it be worthwhile buying a new external DVD to see if it is recognized?

 

Doubt it. If it works on other systems it should work on yours. Do the usb drivers still show up in the device manager?

 

My Device Mgr section contains numerous entries including USB2 and USB Mass Storage Device.
Is this what you were referring to?
My USB2 attached printer works correctly.

 

Found something similar>> This is an email from MS Support.

Dear XXXX,

Thank you for your reply. According to the information, I recommend you follow these steps to resolve this issue:

Step 1: Remove Hidden Devices

1. Click Start. Click Run. Type cmd and press OK.
2. Type "set DEVMGR_SHOW_DETAILS=1" (without quotation marks) and press Enter.
3. Type "set DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1" (without quotation marks) and Press Enter.
4. Type "start devmgmt.msc" (without quotation marks) and click press Enter.
5. Click View. Click Show hidden devices.
6. Click "+" to expand Imaging devices, Unknown devices and USB devices.
7. Are there any digital camera devices and unknown devices (including grayed out devices)? If so, please right click it and click Uninstall.

Step 2: Remove all oem*.inf files

=========================

1. Click start and click run then under the run line type in the command "cmd" (without the quotation marks)

2. In the command line, type in the following (without the quotes) and press enter after each command:

"cd \windows\inf"
"ren infcache.1 *.old"
"ren oem*.inf *.old"
"del C:\windows\setupapi.log"
"exit"

Step 3: Removing all entries under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Enum/USB that start with VID

==================================================================

Removing the VID entries from the registry will cause them to be redetected at restart.

CAUTION: If you have a USB keyboard or mouse, do not remove the VID entry for these devices, otherwise, Windows may not restart correctly.

1. Click Start and click Run. Type regedit and click OK. The Registry Editor window will open.

2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USB.

3. Highlight and delete all the VID_.... entries.

Permissions may be set allowing the deletion of the VID_ entries by following the steps below:

a) Right-click the key to be deleted, and then click Permissions. The VID_... Permissions window will open.
b) With Everyone highlighted in the Group or User name section, select Full Control in the Permissions section.
c) Click Apply, and then click OK.

4. Turn off the computer.

Step 4: Reconnect the digital camera to the computer system:

=============================

1. With the computer system turned off, reconnect the Sony DSC-P50 camera to the USB port.
2. Restart the computer.
3. After the Windows operating system has finished restarting, plug the digital camera into the electrical outlet.
4. A New Hardware Detected window should open and reload the drivers.

If the camera still cannot work, I recommend you plug the camera to another Windows XP computer (Desktop) to test whether this camera works. I suspect it is an incompatibility issue.

Thank you for your time. I look forward to your reply.

Best Regards,

Microsoft Windows Support Professional

The whole thread is over here

 

This approach worked! Thanks very much for taing the time.
Not sure but I lost my Shutdown option within Start after implementing the fix. Found the solution. Maybe my RegistryFix regular runs are causing minor problems...

 

Great to here it works. MS come in handy....sometimes.

I never use registry cleaner as I find they always stop at least one program from running. Of course you don't know what one till a few weeks has gone past.