DVD not working

Try going to the Device Manager and uninstall the dvd driver.
Reboot the computer and it should recognize your dvd drive and reload it for you.

Tried that as well yesterday or so. I will try it again though and see, since I have deleted the lower filter since.

Go into disk management and see what it says - try assigning a drive letter to it if it hasnt one already (right click and select).
Have you been to the sony site to see what drivers are available :
Sony eSupport - VGN-FW140E - Software Updates & Drivers
Have you tried a firmware update for the dvd drive - manufactures site - support - downloads -select from a list or type in the name of the dvd drive.

Here is a list of what i have tried

1. Disabled integrity checks
2. Went into "Disk Management" and reassigned it a different letter It was E and now it is different, but when i try to go back and change it to E the "Disk Management" takes forever to come up with the drives, it stalls out with a message "loading disk configuration information" beneath. It takes about 5 minutes to come up.
3. Went to Sony and did two driver updates available. Unfortunately there is not an option to choose W7 as the OS. I think they have not worked out some of the bugs with theirs system and W7, as I looked into updating my OS with them and they said coming soon, meaning they can't figure it out yet, I guess.
4. Disabled drivers and restarted the computer.
5. Under disk management right clicked on the disk and chose explore and after a minute of waiting an I/O error message popped up.

Each time no go on the DVD

Symptoms:

• Disk is available under device manager and visible in computer.
• It has a device letter assigned. It currently shows CD (E)
• Disks spin up when first inserted. But do not autoplay or anything else.
• Whenever I click on it in the computer screen, the computer takes a minute or so to think about it then asks to "insert a disk"
• When I go to VLC player and try to play the disk it thinks for a 30 secconds or so then asks to "insert a disk"

Any other suggestions to try?

Go here and see if this helps just to verify you did the filters correctly and removed the driver correctly : Your CD drive or DVD drive is missing or is not recognized by Windows or other programs

W7 forum search : Windows 7 Forums the biggest Windows 7 discussion forum, friendly help and many Windows 7 tutorials that will help you get the most out of Microsofts new Windows 7 Operating System. - Search Results for SONY LAPTOP DVD DRIVE NOT WORKING

I followed the FIXIT link and in W7 the fix it module is internal to the system and is run right on the computer. I ran it and found a missing "base system device" driver missing and am unable to find a driver for it. I am not even sure what a "base system device" is. But I am wondering if it is the cause of my problems.

I also have an external hard drive that worked yesterday stop working last night on me. Not sure if this is related.

BTW I tried restoring to a point 2 weeks or so ago and nothing improved on either of these two issues.