Reinstall CD-ROM Drivers?

[Radgam]

Using: WindowsXP HOME

Here's a tricky one I'm looking for a way to completely re-install the drivers for my two CD-ROM drives (ones a DVD drive and ones a CD-RW) from scratch, without having to go through a complete format/reinstall of XP. This had been an on going problem for months but i guess i've just been too lazy to sort it.

At the time, i was installing a lot of different CD-RW type software which all seem to have their own drivers (or some kind of files at least) to get 'better speed and more accurate reading' and install themselves on your system without proper warning (in my opinion anyway). Now when reading from the CD-ROM drives my computer because very jerky and un-responsive.

Am i sure this was the cause? Most definitely. I've tried CD cleaners, and whatever else but i still get the same problem (largely from my second drive actually, the CD-RW one). i tried reading from CDs under my Win98 partition and i can't duplicate the problems i get with WinXP. Also, when i got my computer (which isn't that old) everything was in perfect working order. I know the drive isn't broken, it can still read CDs fine, it just creates a very unresponsive PC under WinXP only!

Anyway, i tried

1) uninstalling the devices (by using the device manager->uninstall)
2) then deleting the files it was using

This created a few problems:

I found the files it was using by going to device manager->right click my drive->properties->driver->driver details and XP still assumes it should be using one of the files i DO NOT WANT IT USING! The offending file is called WINDOWS\System32\drivers\ASAPI.sys which is a third party file installed by a third party program and is not anything connected with the drive manufacturers, or Microsoft/WinXP it would seem. I don't want it to assume it should be using anything so i can truly scrap everything related to the CD drives and do a clean install, but is this really possible? It doesn't seem to be working so far.

Secondly, XP won't update the drivers (device manager->right click my drive->properties->driver->update drivers or using the install new hardware wizard) i just get error messages. I assume this because it's still looking for the old files which i deleted because i don't want it using them .

Help :P

[pam123]

It sounds as if the second drive is running under PIO mode instead of ultra DMA. You need to check IDE2 in device manager.
If that's the case then remove IDE2 in Device Manager and restart the comp, that will force XP to re-recognise the mode correctly as DMA if you have that selected.
By "delete" you mean you removed the programs with the add/remove programs in Control panel ?

[Radgam]

I used add/remove in the control panel to delete the programs but i deleted (by hand) some of the driver files i figured to be causing some evil (the thrid party ones).

Just to double check before screwing anything, i've got something listed:
Secondary IDE Channel so i'm guessing that's the on i should remove?

But i'd still like to re-install best i can to stop XP using the file WINDOWS\System32\drivers\ASAPI.sys which is from one of the CD-RW programs i installed (i can tell by the file info, it's by a company VOB Computersysteme GmbH)

[pam123]

Secondary IDE Channel is what you want.
It's a known problem with XP and very annoying.

If that's a 3rd party file left by a removed program you may be able to get at it in safe mode.
For further reference there is a program called regcleaner that you may want to download and install.
I never use the windows update for drivers, I get them directly from the manufacturers web site.
It's possible that you were a little too enthusiastic while cleaning up and you may need to do a repair install of XP
First though you should check to see if you have a restore point that pre dates the driver binge you went on.
It might cost you any recent files so do a back-up, if possible, and try it.

[Radgam]

Hello!

That's 3 pieces of luck/great news all in one day!

WinXP seems to recreate the standard driver type files i was deleteing minus the third party one... But searching through the registry after regcleaner didn't come up with anything i stumbled accross an install string. One of those types on the invisiable list

I've got TweakAll which lists all visable and invisable programs and can uninstall them (provided the means are there) which it was able too and cleared up the problem with that extra third party file which was stopping my CD drives from working at all. and lastly...

Deleting the Secondary IDE Channel and restarting my computer worked wonders! I'm completely rid of the problems i was having with the CD drive. where it was only reading at around 5.8x before, its reading well into 12x and my PC doesn't have the same un-responsive problems as it did before.

I can't thank you enough