Optiarc AD-7590A dvd-rw driver wanted  

Hello Kim67. Welcome to the Forum.

First, the drive does not need any special driver installation. CD/DVD drives all use the generic driver in Windows.
Windows 7 Compatibility for Sony NEC Optiarc AD-7590A Parallel ATA DVD Burner: Sony NEC Optiarc. Drivers, Updates, Downloads

But if you are looking to upgrade the drives FIRMWARE:
AD-7590A | Sony Optiarc

But, if the drive is not recognized by the system, or will not read or write, then you could have a faulty drive or an OS error. If you describe the symptoms you are trying to fix we may be able to give better help.

It means the firmware installation package can't find (can't see) a compatible DVD drive to install the firmware to.

A few more things to do before pronouncing the drive dead:

#1 - If you know that the problem started after you installed something (Firefox you said?) then the first thing you should (always) try is to perform a System Restore to a date before the change. Test.

#2 - If you ran the Microsoft Fixit jumanji linked above then that would have corrected any upperfilters registry change (a common cause).
Another Microsoft fix to try: Your CD drive or DVD drive is missing or is not recognized by Windows or other programs
And: http://support.microsoft.com/mats/ha...problems/en-us

#3 - Go to Control Panel > Devices & Printers > Device Manager

• Find the DVD/CD-ROM Drives > Expand it
• Go to the Drivers Tab > click "Update Drivers" (this will probably do nothing - that's OK), then
• Right click on your drive > and choose: "Uninstall".
• Restart the computer and test. (Windows will re-install the driver on startup).

#4 - If you want to really test it, then do exactly as above (uninstall the drive), then

• Instead of restarting, shut down, remove the power adapter and laptop battery.
• Press the power button for 15 to 20 seconds.
• Remove the DVD drive from the laptop (find and read the Service Manual for your laptop for a step by step)
• Now reconnect the battery and power adapter and start up (leave the DVD drive out)
• Check Device Manager that there is no drive (there won't be) or any other problem device, then shut down again.
• Remove the power again, replace the DVD drive, then start up and test.

But if none of the above will work, and the firmware for the drive can not find or recognize the drive, then that indicates that the drive has failed, most likely on the controller board. This is something that could be repaired in theory, but is not practical. It would be best to get a replacement drive.

jumanji said:

@TVeblen, at this point I need a clarification to clear my own doubts since I am not sure about it.

Can we not connect an external optical drive and check whether it works without any problems? If it does work properly can we not categorically say yes there is no problem with the OS and the internal drive is dead. Or is it not?

Yes, I see where you are going with that and it's not a bad idea. It would test the Windows driver. Definitely worth testing.

The only problem is that each piece of hardware in a PC has a unique identifying number in it's firmware and a corresponding set of key entries in the registry. So if there were a corruption in the keys for the internal DVD drive, that corruption would not (should not) pass along to the external DVD drive, which would create and have it's own set of registry keys.

However keep in mind that I'm a hardware guy, not a software guy. When it comes to the inner workings of the Windows operating system I am a bigger noob than most regulars here! Any suggestions regarding any "tweaking the registry" fixes beyond the Microsoft Fixits would be most educational.