Windows 7: DVD drive reads DVDs, but not CDs

Hi all,

My fundamental problem is that I recently upgraded to Windows 7 Ultimate (32 bit) off of a DVD. Since this upgrade, I have been able to read any DVD (burned or not) but no CDs whatsoever. Trying it in Safe Mode only changes the icon from DVD drive to CD-ROM drive, but no change in ability to read that a CD is there.

I have tried the Upper / Lower Filters in the registry solution but in



HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/System/CurrentControlSet/Control/Class/{4d36e965-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}

I do not have Upper or Lower filters so I am unable to delete them.

My DVD drive is a Matshita UJ-850S.

I am sorry to place this question but other solutions on other threads have not worked for me. I would really appreciate any help at all. Let me know if there is any other information I need to provide.

Thanks!

I am assuming you have updated the driver, have you?


Ken

Planoguy,
Your unit should have worked correctly immediately after install of Windows 7.

The drivers provided by Microsoft would have worked.

Did you maybe try to install a device driver?

Did you maybe install some dvd/cd software?

I'm saying that you have shot yourself in the foot and we need to determine which gun you used.

Thank you both for your responses.

I tried to update the driver but it said that it was the latest driver.

I reinstalled the driver by deleting it and then rebooting (fujitsu tech support guy said the driver is native to the dvd drive)

The only software I installed was ImgBurn after trying to figure out what was up with my filters per another forum thread. The drive was not working before I installed ImgBurn.

pianoguy,
using device manager disable the driver.
using device manager delete the driver.
Shut your computer down.

Physically disconnect the dvd/cd unit

Start up your computer.
Remove any remaining entry in device manager for your DVD
Shutdown your computer.
Start your computer

Shutdown your computer.
Reinstall your dvd
Start your computer.

Win 7 will automatically install the correct driver.

Shutdown means SHUTDOWN.
Shutdown means POWER OFF YOUR COMPUTER.

Some people seem to think that shutdown means reboot and they are NOT the same. Just want to make sure that computer gets shut off.

DVD burners use separate heads for DVD and CDs, so it's possible that the CD head has failed, while the DVD one continues to work. I'm not sure whether it's possible for a driver issue to produce the same symptoms as that hardware failure.

The obvious thing to do would be to swap drives. That's usually cheap and easy for a desktop system, but may be neither for a laptop.

bobkn,
True. If he has a friendly neighborhood tech or computer repair shop, then a quick way to confirm/rule out the drive itself is to swap. a swap is even easier on a laptop than a desktop quite often.

I did exactly as you said karl and it said that it installed the driver successfully after reinstalling the drive but it still won't read CDs but does read DVDs.

I have another old laptop with a DVD / CD combo. Do you recommend that I switch the drives in the different laptops and see if my newer laptop will read the older CD drive and see if my older laptop will be able to read the drive that we think is broken?

Do I need to worry at all about interchanging drives like that?

Thanks for your input bobkn. You think the CD part of the combo has failed?

pianoguy,
Yes. Swap the drive and see if the problem goes away.

karl,

My attempts to swap the drive were unsuccessful. The hardware did not seem to be compatible with the different brands of laptops and I didn't want to physically force it in.

Is there a cleaner or repair for my CD drive? Do you recommend just buying a new one?

Would I be able to use my working computer to create iso's and transfer them on a flash drive to my computer without a CD drive?