Hey guys, I'm running Windows Vista Home Premium on an HP Pavillion dv6810us laptop, and I've recently begun having problems with my DVD drive. When I push the button to eject my DVD drive, nothing happens. Also, I have a DVD in there right now and it doesn't recognize it. The light on the DVD drive also does not ever light up. I booted my laptop up in Knoppix from a USB drive and it has the same problem.

But here's the strange part: when I first turn on my computer, the light on the DVD drive comes on, and if I push the button it will open. I can then put in a CD/DVD and hear it whirring and clicking.

I think the fact that it works before Windows loads means that it's some sort of software problem. Does anybody have any idea what could be wrong?

Thanks!

All I can suggest is that you go to Device Manager, alight on the CD/DVD device, check its status and in any case re-install the drivers.

Then report.

The device manager says, "This device is working properly." I also uninstalled and then reinstalled the drivers, and it still won't work.

I tried to follow the instructions, but when I went to the registry subkey that it said, there was nothing called UpperFilters or LowerFilters.

How about uninstalling it in Device Manager. Then reboot and let Windows rediscover and reinstall the hardware.

Clear the CD/DVD drive's registry filters;
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11­CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

This is an age old fix for XP systems and still works on Vista and 7 systems.
1. Click on the start menu.
2. If this is a Vista machine in the search box type in “regedit” without the quotation marks.
3. Maximize the HKLM and then go ahead and browse until you reach the key listed above.
4. In the right panel you’ll see something along the lines of “UpperFilter” and “LowerFilter” you want to click on each “filter” key and hit delete. Click yes when it asks to confirm if you wish to delete the key.
5. Restart Windows.
6. Let me know if this works.

*Heads up for iTunes, Roxio and other pest software users; this process will disable CD-rom support for applications that "intercept" information going to-and-from your optical drives.

Jon Pienkowski
Pacific NorthWest Computers
www.pnwcomputers.com
pnwcomputers(at)gmail.com

I have already tried uninstalling and letting windows reinstall on its own after rebooting, but that didn't work either.

Also, this is all that is listed under that location in the registry.

Thank you for your help so far!

The drive doesn't work regardless of whether my laptop is plugged in. It simply refuses to open or read CDs.

I opened up the IRQ list, but I didn't see anything that looked like it would correspond to a DVD drive. It had a ton of entries that said "Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System," though.

.....this is all that is listed under that location in the registry.

Thank you for your help so far!

The Registry entry is correct for the device.

Can you boot off the CD/DVD? If the light comes on and it behaves "correctly" at POST then if it boots off a CD/DVD we can rule out a hardware problem withthe device.

That's the right path to follow; the #1 rule in diagnostics, is it an software or hardware issue.
Unless the drive is physically failing, that sucker should be able to boot off of a CD pre-windows OS.

Thank you for your help so far. Unfortunately, I ran into more severe problems while I was trying to fix my DVD drive. I wasn't sure if I should continue this thread or start a new one, so I just went ahead and started a new one here in the hardware section.

Wow, thank you! The easiest fix I ever did, all my drives are working now. I had 4 drives in the device manager and none were working. Two were DAEMON tools SCSI virtual drives so it couldn't have been a hardware problem. I tried everything, uninstall, reinstall, disable and re-enable, delete etc., etc. It was very difficult to uninstall and reinstall the virtual drives and they still didn't work.
I then followed your instructions below and I believe that I only found the LowerFilter (there was no UpperFilter) which I then deleted. I then restarted windows and lo and behold my two physical drives came back and I then used DAEMON tools to mount the two SCSI virtual drives again. They mounted instantly (took over 30 seconds before to either remove or install before!) and all four drives are now working properly. Again, thanks very much. Dave
PS: I know the post is old but it is the only one I found which fixed my problem.

Clear the CD/DVD drive's registry filters;
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11­CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

This is an age old fix for XP systems and still works on Vista and 7 systems.
1. Click on the start menu.
2. If this is a Vista machine in the search box type in “regedit” without the quotation marks.
3. Maximize the HKLM and then go ahead and browse until you reach the key listed above.
4. In the right panel you’ll see something along the lines of “UpperFilter” and “LowerFilter” you want to click on each “filter” key and hit delete. Click yes when it asks to confirm if you wish to delete the key.
5. Restart Windows.
6. Let me know if this works.

*Heads up for iTunes, Roxio and other pest software users; this process will disable CD-rom support for applications that "intercept" information going to-and-from your optical drives.

Jon Pienkowski
Pacific NorthWest Computers
www.pnwcomputers.com
pnwcomputers(at)gmail.com

The device manager says, "This device is working properly." I also uninstalled and then reinstalled the drivers, and it still won't work.

First try cleaning the drive. Then try uninstalling the dvd drive in the device manager, then reboot and allow the computer to recognize and install the dvd drive.

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