DVD drive "thinks" it's a CD-Drive

From the manufacturers website. Legitimately!

Britton30 said:

It's under System control/Drives/Autoplay.
Did the SFC scan have no violations shown.
In my sig is a link for Revo Uninstaller, download it and run it to see if it picks up any Alcohol.
Please DON'T download or use any other optimizers, you'll make the problem worse. Ask, someone will try to help out.

Britton30,

I downloaded the uninstaller and there were no signs of Alcohol120% in my system. However, my roblem hasn't been solved. I'm thinking the problem is in the registry. Do you know any registry hacks that could help?

I also have four more questions:

1)When I uninstalled my DVD Driver and reinstall it again, am I supposed to get a certificate titled "CD-ROM" as the only compatible driver or is my DVD drive supposed to have its own certificate(s)?

2) I installed Nero long before this problem began, but is it possble that Nero could be the source of the problem?

3) Where may I find the appropriate driver(s) for my DVD Drive (the Slimtype DVD A DS8A1H ATA Device) other than the official HP Website (they don't have anything for this problem, I checked)

4) Do you or anyone you know have any other possible answers, other than asking for help or calling HP? (The warranty for my computer has already been expired for about 3 years, I'm out of the US for several months, and (even if I was still in the US) I do not want to give my computer up to HP for them to "fix" my problem for nearly $200 only for my laptop to completely breakdown-I don't want all of that happening just for a DVD Drive when I know there is a free, permanent and safer solution on this forum or any other one.)
Thank You

I have seen a Pioneer DVD desktop drive exhibit this behaviour, just once.

It was on a W7 x64 build which a registry cleaner has been used on, and where the registry wasn't backed up.

Tried everything conceivable without success. Never nailed down the precise cause. Was at the point of almost condemning the drive; however a reinstallation of the OS cured the issue.

In that example, as I said... "tried everything conceivable without success..." as you've quoted in your post; but it was related to a registry cleaner being used and since there was no back-up it was hard to say what the precise cause was.

When I posted earlier about firmware I was not talking about drivers, these are entirely different.

If it were me I'd check the firmware is the most recent and use system file checker on the installation to restore any missing or corrupt system files.

If that fails to make a difference make a Windows Backup image.

You could then try a fresh OS installation just to see if it alters things.

If not you can revert to your backup, nothing to lose as it were.

Melkor said:

MY DVD-RW drive is back online!!! It is awesome! And I found the perfect solution (for me) without any formatting or side effects involved. I don't know if this will work on everyone's drives but here's what I did:

1) I went to a bunch of forums and I found a registry key and installed it which you can get here

http://gur.in/registry/cdgone.reg

2) I was also looking for fixes for my auto play ( because my computer's autoplay feature was not working) and I stumbled upon a Microsoft tool called autofix
(at Download Autoplay Repair Wizard from Official Microsoft Download Center) which not only fixed my autoplay, but also repaired a shell file (of course the application has to be run as an administrator)

If this becomes a popular method of fixing drives, it should be named the Melkorian Method. However all your help and the time spent on this issue, from all of you guys, is deeply appreciated. So I thank you all.

Hi, Melcor!
Well, it's a little more than one year after your last post about your "Slimtype DVD A DS8A1H ATA Device" and I am certainly hoping that these links will resolve my current problems with this same device!

Mine is reading everything okay, but my device won't write (burn) a DVD! It will write CD's but not DVD's!
I receive similar messages every time I try a DVD-R, DVD+R, or a DVD-R RW. These messages come directly after the drive ejects the disk while alerting me that my drive cannot write at a speed which is either too fast or too slow; that 'they' didn't know which reason it is.

I've tried every type of blank disk possible and it seems as if it will burn the CD's however, right before it begins to burn the video , it spits out the disk because there isn't enough disk space to accomodate the amount of data in the video.

So, wish me luck! I am going to try the links you have provided.

I'll report the results here, after I'm finished.
Thanks again,
blsev55

Well, I tried the 'registry fix link' provided by Melkor and my burner still won't burn DVD's. It will still burn CD's, but not dvd's.

I've been researching quite a bit and have learned there are many others with the same problem with the same device. I discovered thiere is a common link we all share and that is the fact that the loss of normal functions of our dvd drives occurred after installing Windows 7.

I typed the mobel # into a search engine and found 100's of 1,000's of different reports about this drive. A common suggestion is to uninstall the device and reinstall the drivers with Window's "Device Manager." Problem is : the driver (s) for this unit cannot be found! (at least, I haven't been able to find any)

I have come across links which indicate the drivers are there to be downloaded however, when the "Download" button is clicked upon, there is no download ... well, not a driver download, anyway.

SOOOoooo ... I am at a loss for a solution, oither than the re-installation of the operating system; and I want to avoid resorting to that option.

If anyone has any suggestions for bringing resolution to this problem, PLEASE REPLY to this post.

Thank You
blsev55

Melkor said:

MY DVD-RW drive is back online!!! It is awesome! And I found the perfect solution (for me) without any formatting or side effects involved. I don't know if this will work on everyone's drives but here's what I did:

1) I went to a bunch of forums and I found a registry key and installed it which you can get here

http://gur.in/registry/cdgone.reg

2) I was also looking for fixes for my auto play ( because my computer's autoplay feature was not working) and I stumbled upon a Microsoft tool called autofix
(at Download Autoplay Repair Wizard from Official Microsoft Download Center) which not only fixed my autoplay, but also repaired a shell file (of course the application has to be run as an administrator)

If this becomes a popular method of fixing drives, it should be named the Melkorian Method. However all your help and the time spent on this issue, from all of you guys, is deeply appreciated. So I thank you all.