Dvd drive [acer tsst ts-l633b] disappears in windows 7 explorer
FIRST OF ALL A BIG THANK YOU TO... 
Microsoft for all the wasted hours/days and for messing up my computer - yet again!
ACER for ignoring the problem and forcing me to buy an external DVD drive, nice machines but your customer service is rubbish - I certainly won't be buying ACER again.
PROBLEMS
- Drive disappears in Windows Explorer;
- Drive reappears when tray opens or closes;
- Have to reboot computer to see drive.
CAUSE
This problem occurs because the SATA driver (Msahci.sys) implements new power management functionality that is known as Adaptive Link Power Management (ALPM). ALPM is a feature that puts a hardware device into sleep state after 100 ms of idle time. This is a power-saving feature. Some optical drives do not behave correctly with ALPM enabled, and therefore these drives may not be recognised by the computer. The following is a list of some DVD drive models that are known to exhibit this problem:
TSST TS-L633B DVD+/-RW [SAMSUNG]
SONY BC-5100S DVD
SONY BC-5600S DVD
PLDS DS-8A3S [DELL]
FIXES
METHOD 1. Update the DVD firmware;
METHOD 2. Manually turn off ALPM.
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Method 1: Check for a DVD firmware update.
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NOTE: I take no responsibility for any none working drives or damage cause by the flashing process - you flash your drive at you own risk!
All I can say is flashing the drive with the SAMSUNG firmware on my ACER TS-L633B DVD drive worked for me. I was without a DVD drive for months and had already bought an external replacement DVD drive, so I had nothing to lose anyway.
After the flashing process my ACER DVD drive was recognised by Windows 7 as a SAMSUNG DVD drive, because the flashing process changes the OEM CODE to from AC01 [ACER] to SC01 [SAMSUNG].
After a reboot, Windows 7 loaded the SAMSUNG driver. I now have a fully functional working DVD drive, that doesn't disappear in Windows Explorer and will burn and read discs. I haven't burned a DL disc yet but it can read them, I don't foresee any problems though, fingers crossed.
CHECKING THE DRIVE TYPE
You need the drive to show up in Windows Explorer. Open and close the DVD tray if you DVD drive disappears, you may have to reboot.
Check drive type in Device Manager: Start > run > devmgmt.msc
THIS EXAMPLE IS A TESTED AND WORKING FIX FOR AN ACER TSST TS-L633B DVD+/-RW DRIVE [MANUFACTURER: SAMSUNG]
1. DOWNLOAD THE SAMSUNG WIN INQUIRY UTILITY [WININQUIRY.exe]
This is a program to check the drive name, firmware name, and vendor name while upgrading the firmware of a model that is not supported by firmware live update system.
DOWNLOAD:
SAMSUNG ODD SERVICE
----------------------------------------------------
SAMSUNG TSSE WIN INQUIRY (ORIGINAL FIRMWARE):
DRIVE: TSSTCorp CDDVDW TS-L633B AC01
MODEL NAME: TSSTCorp CDDVDW TS-L633B
VERSION: AC01
OEM CODE: AC [ACER COMPUTER]
----------------------------------------------------
2. DOWNLOAD THE LATEST SAMSUNG FIRMWARE
TSDNWIN.exe is a program that supports the downloads of SAMSUNG firmware in all Window Operation/Systems ( O/S environment).
DOWNLOAD:
SAMSUNG ODD SERVICE
- Firmware file: TS-L633B_SC01.exe
- Extract the files from the compressed archive (TS-L633B_SC01.exe) using 7zip.
TS-L633B_SC01.exe consists of two packed files:
- TSDNWIN.exe
- TS-L633B_SC01.bin (the firmware file)
TSDNWIN.exe will not update the firmware on an ACER DVD drive because it is meant for SAMSUNG drives. You have to stop it checking the OEM CODE using the command from a DOS window.
NOTE: Close all programs and if it's a laptop make sure the computer won't power off, make sure it's connected to AC mains power.
1. Start > type cmd
2. Right click on cmd.exe
3. Select > Run as administrator
4. Change to directory where TSDNWIN.exe is located [cd (dir)]
3. Type: TSDNWIN.exe -NOCHECK
5. Hit enter > should now flash drive, fingers crossed
6. Reboot.
7. Windows 7 will probably install a new DVD driver for your 'new' SAMSUNG [OEM: SC01] DVD drive.
8. Run SAMSUNG WIN INQUIRY UTILITY [WININQUIRY.exe] again to check.
-----------------------------------------------
SAMSUNG TSSE WIN INQUIRY (NEW FIRMWARE):
DRIVE: TSSTCorp CDDVDW TS-L633B AC01
MODEL NAME: TSSTCorp CDDVDW TS-L633B
VERSION: SC01
OEM CODE: SC [SAMSUNG COMPUTER]
-----------------------------------------------
SAMSUNG FIRMWARE UPGRADE INFORMATION:
Firmware upgrade method
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Method 2: Disable the Adaptive Link Power Management (ALPM) feature.
========================================================================
In order to disable ALPM users will need to first open a command prompt.
1. Start > type cmd
2. Right click on cmd.exe
3. Select > Run as administrator
4. There are a total of six commands, commands must be executed in the order below.
MANUAL WORKAROUND: FIX: The DVD drive is not recognized after you install Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 (MS Hotfix information)
To determine the power plans on your computer, type the following command at a command prompt, and then press ENTER:
powercfg /l
The following table shows the power plans that may exist on your computer:
---------------------------------
Existing Power Schemes (* Active)
---------------------------------
Power Scheme GUID: 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e (Balanced)
Power Scheme GUID: 447b0505-da3e-40ba-a1af-bc140cbd12c5 (Custom Plan)*
Power Scheme GUID: 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c (High performance)
Power Scheme GUID: a1841308-3541-4fab-bc81-f71556f20b4a (Power saver)
To manually disable the existing ALPM power plans on the computer, type the following commands at a command prompt, and then press ENTER after each command:
powercfg.exe -setacvalueindex 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c 0012ee47-9041-4b5d-9b77-535fba8b1442 DAB60367-53FE-4fbc-825E-521D069D2456 0
Powercfg.exe -setdcvalueindex 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c 0012ee47-9041-4b5d-9b77-535fba8b1442 DAB60367-53FE-4fbc-825E-521D069D2456 0
Powercfg.exe -setacvalueindex 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e 0012ee47-9041-4b5d-9b77-535fba8b1442 DAB60367-53FE-4fbc-825E-521D069D2456 0
Powercfg.exe -setdcvalueindex 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e 0012ee47-9041-4b5d-9b77-535fba8b1442 DAB60367-53FE-4fbc-825E-521D069D2456 0
Powercfg.exe -setacvalueindex a1841308-3541-4fab-bc81-f71556f20b4a 0012ee47-9041-4b5d-9b77-535fba8b1442 DAB60367-53FE-4fbc-825E-521D069D2456 0
Powercfg.exe -setdcvalueindex a1841308-3541-4fab-bc81-f71556f20b4a 0012ee47-9041-4b5d-9b77-535fba8b1442 DAB60367-53FE-4fbc-825E-521D069D2456 0
To create a new power plan, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
2. Click Power Options.
3. In the Navigation pane, click Create a power plan.
4. Select the kind of power plan that you want.
5. In the Plan name box, type a name for your new power plan, and then click Next.
6. In the Turn off the display box and in the Put the computer to sleep box, select the options that you want, and then click Create.
THE END.