# Acer Aspire suddenly won't read cds or dvds



## PSYloco (Oct 4, 2011)

Hi. I have an Acer Aspire 7740 with a stock CD/DVD ROM drive (HL-DT-ST) and Win 7 64-bit OS. I was installing an 8-year-old game, cancelled the operation, and suddenly it won't read any CD or DVD -- as if they weren't even there. When it told me to insert disc 2, I did so, but then it told me I had the wrong disc in and that it wanted disc 1. After a few rounds of this dance I gave up and hit cancel. Now, the drive always appears empty. The device manager has no question mark next to the drive (or any device, for that matter), so I didn't want to mess with the drivers. There is nothing in the registry pertaining to the game. As far as I can tell, the computer sees the drive, but the drive doesn't see a disc? I have no idea why. Can someone please help me out? Thx


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## aciid (Jul 18, 2008)

Hello PSYloco and Welcome to TSF,

Please post a screenshot of your Disk Management, so that we can see if all looks the way it should.

Go to Start > Search.
Type "diskmgmt.msc" > Hit ENTER.
Maximize the Window > Printscreen this view.

As general tips, you can try chaning the Drive Letter in the disk management, and try rolling back/updating the drive of the CD/DVD Rom drive in the Device Manager.


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## jenae (Jun 17, 2008)

Hi, yes good advice from Aciid, you say you can see the device in Device manager and there are no error signs. Right click on the device and select properties from the menu choice select "Details" under this you will see a box titled "Property" and it will have a property in it, on the right will be a down arrow select this and the property's for that device are listed, scroll to see if "class upper filter" or class lower filter" appears, when highlighted what shows in the property box... if anything it should not be so.

BTW, I rarely see this mentioned when looking at device problems YET it is one of the most effective ways of troubleshooting , a good appreciation of these property's is essential for a competent tech... go figure, it is not generally taught.

To fix follow the instructions here, NOTE I would use the Vista fix (works for Seven) and do it manually, if your property's (above) shows no filters then this is not your problem. so do not proceed ... post back

Your CD drive or DVD drive is missing or is not recognized by Windows or other programs


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## PSYloco (Oct 4, 2011)

Thank you so much both of you for the quick responses. I didn't see them until just now.

@Jenae I checked the properties and I found Class Upper Filter. Under that is "PartMgr". You say there should be NO filters? I found a set of instructions in another thread on how to delete these strings in the registry. I saved the key and then deleted classupperfilters as per the instructions. It didn't say anything about classlowerfilters. I put the filter back in the registry since it didn't make a difference and I didn't know if it was important or not. You say there should be NO filters at all?

Thx. 

@Aciid Here's a screenshot of the diskmgmt.msc:


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## PSYloco (Oct 4, 2011)

I deleted the upper/lowerfilters in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} key and an upperfilter in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} key, but system restore put them back in. The problem still persists.


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

Try this: Your CD drive or DVD drive is missing or is not recognized by Windows or other programs


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## PSYloco (Oct 4, 2011)

Thx, funk, but I've tried this a few times. I've deleted the upper and lower filters in the specified reg key. I even tried system restore to the point before I installed the game. All that did was force me to reinstall the printer and windows updates. I've already restarted the computer a dozen times, but to no avail. Here's what happens when I try to play a disc:


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## oscer1 (Jan 27, 2010)

you also could try this.
Your CD or DVD drive can't read or write media


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

uninstall the drive from disk management and reboot


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