SOLVED DVD Drive Not Recognized After Boot/Restart

[greywolfe49]

Have a Dell Latitude E6410 laptop which I loaded Win7 Pro 64 on myself. Came with 7 Pro 32. All necessary drivers from Dell web site loaded, I think. This system has a modular drive bay in which the DVD resides, this is how the system came. Boot drive is a WD 320GB HDD.

If booting or restarting, the dvd drive is not recognized in Win7, neither in device manager or computer. If waking from hibernation the drive then appears. Further, if an external, usb dvd drive is attached, the system boots and both dvd devices are seen.

Not sure where to look but, it seems as there is a setting somewhere that is causing this behavior.

One last note, I did check the register and there was no upper or lower filter entry for the dvd drive in the modular bay prior to my attaching the portable device.

Any help with matter would be hugely appreciated.

 

[TrainableMan]

I don't know if it will help but you could start by trying the Microsoft Fix-it for DVD drives.

http://support.microsoft.com/mats/cd_dvd_drive_problems/en-us

 

[greywolfe49]

Thanks Train but that did nothing.

 

[TrainableMan]

I didn't think it would but it is the least severe idea.

My best guess is something odd in your registry and the best way I know to fix a registry problem is a total reinstall.

 

[greywolfe49]

Did a reinstall already. Didn't help.

I've order a new device and will see if that helps. Spent time & $ with MS answer desk tonight to no avail. This in addition to Dell tech. Obviously, it's a hot potato issue between the two. At least the MS folks want a call back when the new drive gets put in.

It's just damn weird that when an external dvd drive is attached and system is rebooted that the modular drive works and for that matter can be used to boot the system from but Windows seems flakie with it.

 

[TrainableMan]

If it was some sort of short then a new drive might help but honestly, I doubt that's it either.

Is the DVD recognized in your BIOS?

If you go into Control Panel > Device Manager when the DVD isn't working and select View > Show Hidden Devices, can you see and warning icons for unrecognized or improperly working devices?

 

[greywolfe49]

The DVD is seen in the BIOS. In fact, I can boot from it on start up. That's how I reinstalled Win7 and ran two different Linux live cds last night.

No warnings in Device Manager what so ever.

Here's something else that may narrow things down or be more confusing depending. The DVD will show up in the system if the system goes to sleep and then is wakened. I've tried looking at sleep settings but nothing jumps out at me.

 

[TrainableMan]

Does the DVD even show in the device manager list?

And have you tried all the ideas from Microsoft HERE?

 

[greywolfe49]

It shows in device manager when it shows in Computer. If not in Computer, not in Device Manager.

I've worked through the Microsoft instructions several times.

I'm leaning toward some deep, dark secret with in the sleep settings but, I'm over 60 and have been wrong a couple of times before.

 

[TrainableMan]

Well I have seen it where a device is not recognized simply because another device further up the chain was not seen, for example you don't see a USB device if the driver for that USB hub is not working. Since drivers can load whenever a device is detected I thought maybe something loads when you do whatever you do when it becomes visible and then in turn the DVD-Rom becomes visible. But what device would be further up that list of links ... maybe the PCI controller etc. Are you sure you have all the latest 64-bit drivers installed from Dell for that computer?

I also thought maybe there was some service that might be delayed in starting but was really needed right away but in looking at the Services running on mine I really don't know which would or could be involved so again no solution, just another possibility.

 

[greywolfe49]

Problem solved. Redid a fresh Win7 install, loaded Dell drivers in a sequence I found somewhere on line. Now DVD drive shows up, albeit, as a removable device which, if not careful, can be ejected by the 'Safely Remove' widget.

If anyone has a fix that puts the DVD in a fixed device state, would like to know about that procedure.