DVD Drive disappeared - Windows 7 64bit

DVD Drive - Sony/NEC Optiarc AD 7590-A

OS: Windows 7 64-bit

Hi All,

After installing Windows 7 64-bit a couple of days ago, my DVD optical drive has completely disappeared (not present in device manager, no drivers automatically found, no firmware that isnt an update to be found on the internet - firmware updates not compatible as it was provided OEM by Alienware inside the purchased laptop).

I've consulted a few different forums and no-one has been able to turn up a solution which is obviously getting incredibly frustrating.

Current solutions attempted so far:

• Remove upper filters (werent present)
• Disable integrity checks
• Update BIOS
• Update chipset
• Update drivers through troubleshoot
• Installed Intel storage matrix
• Removed and re-seated drive (hot-swappable anyway - didnt even register a ping in Windows 7 to notify anything had been connected)
• No resolution through disk management

Possibly a few more but I've tried so many I've probably forgot!

Drive is present in BIOS, and still boots a Windows cd no problem so is obviously still functioning outside of Windows 7.

As I said, it's as though the damn thing has dropped off the face of the earth as soon as I enter Windows 7.

Any suggestions?

Cheers,

Will

Hi,

Click on anything in the device manager.

Then go to action | scan for hardware changes. Any luck?

Check the jumper on the drive itself so that is right for your setup, whether it is an IDE or SATA drive.

Thanks for the quick reply, as stated no joy with anything inside device manager regarding any auto-updating.

Jumper settings are correct.

Try to disable the drivers integrity check:

Run in command prompt:

bcdedit /set loadoptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS

reboot


This worked for me on my two 7240's

As stated above disabling integrity checks hasnt solved it.

Hi everyone!

I thought disabling the Integrity Checks would solve the same problem I have with Will2061, but unfortunately, it didn't. It worked temporarily, but after installing the updates from Microsoft, I lost my DVD Drive again. I tried doing a System Restore and even going back to doing the Integrity Checks, it DID NOT WORK.

Help!!!

I see this thread is quite old, but I was wondering if you had any joy over this? the same problem is happening to me and I tried everything that you have done so far.

unfortunately, no solution still. i actually am boiling this down to a hardware problem and not an OS one. since my laptop already has overheating issues.

Unfortunately no easy solution gents, the way I got round it was to rip my cd onto a usb stick to get past the verification issue then swap the cd in just after the first restart the installation requires you to do.

I can't remember the program I used to do it as it was a while ago - and ironically the laptop that I went to all this trouble for subsequently fried itself a few months later, last time I ever buy an Alienware.

sloppyjojo said:

unfortunately, no solution still. i actually am boiling this down to a hardware problem and not an OS one. since my laptop already has overheating issues.

I wouldn't be so sure. My laptop runs between 45-58C under normal loads. Likewise my HDD runs <40C. The max for both is 100C and 60C respectively. So, even though I am well below the max temps for those two, I still experience the DVD/CD drive disappearing act for my laptop's DVD/CD drive when ejecting a disc and reloading another disc in the drive. Funny thing is that I have a DVD burner hooked up via USB2 and it never disappears. Now, I have to log into my admin account and scan for hardware changes for DVD/CD drives under device manager--75% the DVD/CD drive in question comes back. I never experienced such behavior when running WinXP, nor do I see this behavior happening in my linux install on the same HDD/laptop. Has anyone reported this bug to Microsoft yet?