I recently had to fix a problem with a Toshiba laptop where the DVD-ROM drive no longer appeared in Windows. The drive was installed properly, and had recently appeared and the owner was able to use it. After uninstalling Norton Antivirus, the DVD-ROM drive suddenly disappeared.
The good news is that it could still be seen by the BIOS, so the drive was apparently still working from the system’s point of view. The problem, then, must lay within Windows. After doing some research, the information provided in this post corrected the problem.
Fixing the Disappearing DVD-ROM Drive Problem
The problem of the disappearing Matshita UJ-850s DVD-ROM drive appeared on a Toshiba laptop, but from what I read online, it could also happen on Acer laptops as well. The fix below should correct the problem for both laptops, and probably others with the drive installed.
- Click Start->Run.
- In the Open dialog, type regedit and then click the OK button.
- Navigate to the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetControlClass{4d36e965-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}.
- Click File->Export to export and backup the data in the key.
- In the File name box, type dvdkey and then click the Save button.
- Once the key is saved, click the UpperFilters value on the right.
- Click Edit->Delete. When the confirmation mesasge appears, click Yes.
- Click the LowerFilters value on the right.
- Click Edit->Delete. When the confirmation mesasge appears, click Yes.
- Close the registry editor and restart your computer.
After rebooting the computer, you should now notice that the DVD drive appears in Windows. To verify that it works, insert a DVD and attempt to read the disc. I had no issues with using the drive after performing the above steps.
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on June 3, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Paul,
Thank you, thank you! I am usually very apprehensive about changing my registry settings but when I found your fix for the Matshita UJ-850s DVD-ROM I felt I had nothing to lose since I could not find a driver solution on Microsoft. This fix worked on my Lenovo (Xerox) laptop.
Again, thanks for your help.
on June 4, 2009 at 10:24 am
Glad it worked. It appears it is related to that particular DVD-ROM regardless of the system.
on January 15, 2011 at 11:01 am
didnt work for me. but what did was something I got from the apple support. I did update the GEAR drivers, In addition, instead of deleting the upperfilters, had to leave it with value “GEARAspiWDM”, and include a carriage return. Then itunes immediately worked.
on November 8, 2011 at 11:44 am
Thank you so much. This really worked!
on November 8, 2011 at 3:18 pm
I’m glad I could help.