DVD ROM disappeared - Need Help

[RingDing]

Hi, my DVD ROM disappeared from my computer and it doesn’t read or write disks. I went to the Device Manager and there is a little Exclamation on the DVD/CD-ROM Drives QSI DVD-RAM SDW-086 ATA Device. I double clicked on it and in the Device Status its says “Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Code 39)” the driver is not missing so my guess is it maybe corrupted or something. I contact the technical support and they told me to do a system restore, but it didn’t work since I cleared all the old restore points, then they told me to restore everything using my backup disks. Is there another way I can fix this problem without restoring my laptop to the factory settings. My laptop is Sony Vaio VGN-N21M/W running Windows Vista Home Premium.

Thank you for your help.

[kram 2.0]

I have to ask you this - have you tried simply rebooting? Does the drive show any activity when booting up (ie. lights blinking, emitting sound, etc.)?

kram

[RingDing]

When I reboot the light blinks and I can open the DVD-ROM by pressing the button. I dont think its a hardware problem, its more like software/driver peoblem.

[Lespaul20]

Did you uninstall any software before this happened?

[pam123]

Read carefully before you start.
One refers to the problem after an upgrade to Vista and the other after it just dropped on an unfortunate laptop owner :

http://www.randomfix.com/2007/04/12/windows-vista-%E2%80%93-missing-cddvd-rom-drive/http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929461
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929461

[RingDing]

No I did not install or uninstall anything when that happed and vista came pre-installed, I didn't upgrade to vista. I did try to update the firmware but no luck since vista doesn’t recognise the dvd drive.

Below is the full error message.

Description:
Windows was able to successfully install device driver software, but the driver software encountered a problem when it tried to run. The problem code is 39.

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: PnPDeviceProblemCode
Architecture: x86
Hardware Id: IDE\CdRomQSI_DVD-RAM_SDW-086_____________________ES71____
Setup class GUID: {4d36e965-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}
PnP problem code: 00000027
Driver name: cdrom.sys
Driver version: 6.0.6000.16386
Driver date: 11-02-2006
OS Version: 6.0.6000.2.0.0.768.3
Locale ID: 2057

[pam123]

It does, indeed, look like the upper/lower filters problem.
Since the randomfix site isn't returning 404 errors just now.
Go read here : http://www.instant-registry-fixes.org/how-can-i-fix-code-39-error/

and compare it to the MS Help version, they're essentially the same fix but helps to get two different wording's.
Then follow the instructions carefully, after you back up your registry.

[RingDing]

I deleted the registry key and it worked.
Thanks pam123 for your help.

[pam123]

Nice job and enjoy your computer.:)

[KthMcDv]

If you have Vista & Quick time on your computer, it can cause this problem. I have had this happen several times and have found that it always seems to occur when you download any Quicktime updates. I still have Quicktime on my computer, but I don't download any of the updates for it. It does require working with the upper & lower filters.
I have a HP Pavillion with Vista Home Premium/Media Center.