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#1
CD/DVD drives not recognised by W7
I recently upgraded my laptop from Windows XP 32-bit to Windows 7 64-bit and now have a dual-boot system. The Windows 7 system will not recognise the laptop's internal CD/DVD drive nor will it recognise an external CD/DVD drive (HP DVD420e) connected via USB.
Before installing Windows 7 I ran the compatibility scan and there was nothing to suggest that these drives were not compatible with Windows 7.
The Windows XP system still recognises both drives.
The Windows 7 Device Manager shows the internal CD/DVD drive as "HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GMA-4082N ATA Device" and reports under Device Status "Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Code 39)". For the external CD/DVD drive the Device Status is identical, i.e. "Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Code 39)".
I searched for drivers for these devices without success. Specifically, HP reports that there is no Windows 7 64-bit device driver for their external HP DVD420e drive.
I find it a bit incredible that there are no Windows 7 drivers for these common or garden CD/DVD drives and suspect that the problem lies elsewhere, i.e. that the "....corrupted or missing driver...." might be a red herring.
I have checked the Windows 7 system files with SCANNOW and it reports that "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations".
I shut down the system, inserted the original Windows 7 DVD, and fired up the system anew to attempt a repair. No success. There was a lot of whirring from the internal CD/DVD drive, a message asked me whether I wanted to boot from the DVD, I answered 'Yes' but I didn't get the expected Windows 7 DVD screen asking me if I wanted to Repair the system or Install it. It simply started the normal installed Windows 7 system. So via this route the system seemed to be able to run the DVD/CD drive at startup but once the Windows 7 system was up and running it didn't recognise the internal CD/DVD drive.
Can anyone suggest the next diagnostic/therapeutic step ?
Paddy