SP 2 Disabling DVD & Rewriter

[Trevor]

I recently installed SP2 on my PC and laptop and each were then unable to read CD's or DVD's. When you place a CD or DVD in any of them it thinks they are aoll blank. It does not matter if they are bought CD's containing programs or CD's that had been burnt on the computer. PC has XP Professional and laptop has Home. SP2 was the offical one from a CD.

Pulling my hair out with this one.

tm@aovc.co.uk

[GaryRouth]

I noticed that in an earlier thread a member replied that he tried a firmware upgrade to solve some problems with his optical disks after installing SP2 on his system - that might not be a high-percentage shot, but it couldn't hurt to try.

You might try booting into Safe Mode, and removing the optical drives from Device manager. XP SP2 should reinstall on reboot - it might have a chance of solving things.

You could also try refreshing your version of whatever 3rd party Cd-recording software you may have installed on the computers, as they often install specialized drivers for the optical drives. Or visit the websites of their software house for SP2 patches.

You can also try the retro approach - uninstall SP2, and see if things are suddenly back to normal. Then visit your computer vendors websites for info on SP2 compatibility. Should you run into any trouble uninstalling SP2, a Knowledge Base article lists details for several methods http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;875350

Best of luck
. . . Gary

[ssutton]

Since installing SP2 my DVD (Sony DRU 510a) and CD (Yamaha) drives seem to be inaccessible. I have contacted MS and Sony they both tell the it's the other guy's problem. I have tried the latest firmware on both to no avail. Sony says they don't supply drivers since the drive is PnP. They claim the drivers are resident in XP. I can put a known good disk in the DVD drive and My Computer sees the drive but doesn't not see the disk or it's contents. I'm about at wits end. I can't backup my files and reformat since I can't use my CD or DVD writers. Please does anyone have any other ideas? I am considering using system restore but would like to avoid trying that especially in the event it doesn't work either.

[bailey]

thats interesting, I have had no problems at all with sp2, I have 5 systems with it on

[GaryRouth]

Trevor - any luck yet? [if yes, tell us which fix worked best, if you can]

ssutton - did you try removing the drives in Safe Mode yet?

. . . Since I haven't seen a machine do this in person, I can't test this myself. But can either of you read a CD's contents while in Safe Mode?

. . . And I wouldn't be surprised if a number of folks find a fix by uninstalling/reinstalling their CD/DVD burner software, since I believe they install drivers for optical drives as part of their general install.

Curious to see how this sorts out
. . . Gary

[ssutton]

Haven't tried using Safe Mode but I did try removing the drives using Device Manager and then letting them reinstall. I'll try using your method and see what happens. I can try uninstalling Nero but it really concerns me that My Computer can't read the disk drives.

[ssutton]

I removed the drives in Safe Mode as you suggested. I'm not ready to shoot off any fireworks just yet, but I did get the DVD to burn a disk. I was also able to get the CD to read a disk I burned previously. In case this works long term allow me to say Thank You very much!

[ssutton]

Well the non-reading problem has returned. My drives worked for a day or so and now trying to uninstall in Safe Mode doesn't work either. Please if anyone has ideas please help me.

[GaryRouth]

Hi again -

[this is a bit late, been away on vacation ]

ssutton -
This is getting interesting. How about
1) Checking in your Event Logs (in Administrative Tools) to see if any entries correspond to the timing of the drives relapse.
2) Running a file search for files updated in that time frame (& since). See if a program is updating a system file - or not.
3) Trying a System Restore to that "working window" - and carefully tracking file changes each day after that (assuming that the restore fixes the problem).

Curiouser and curiouser (Lewis Carroll)
. . . Gary

[ Late edit - a new symptom, the "empty Device Manager" has surfaced, and I've also added a recommended reading of an annoyances.org thread that deals with a recent issue. Involved are the XP Services configurations, Plug & Play, and Security permissions. Here's the link - http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/t1051715405

It may be that Plug & Play and Services configuration is affecting the CD/DVD issue as well ]