# I am at my wits end. DVD Drive will not work - extreme edition.



## JCarp (Aug 10, 2014)

Hello. My windows 10 PC is being a demon. Essentially, for the past month or so it has inexplicably been freezing up. At idle, during a game, reading facebook - anything. Just random lockups. Nothing in event viewer.

- I have done antivirus, malware scans. I have used cleanup tools such as ASC and CCleaner. All results turn back perfect. I have verified all drivers are up to date, including checking manually and using automated driver software to check. I have uninstalled and reinstalled drivers for things like chipset, video card, dvd drive. I have cleaned the case and checked for any loose connections. I have changed the cables. Nothing pans out.

Today, I decided enough was enough - and blamed the operating system itself. First, I tried a restore point back to a month ago - previous to any issues occurring. The system restore kept failing, regardless of choosing any valid restore point.

*Okay, onto round two. Let's reinstall windows 10.

This is where I discovered that my DVD drive does not work.*

1.) It will not read media.
2.) It will not autoplay anything
3.) Interacting with the drive in any way results in explorer.exe locking up for 5+ minutes.

I proceed to uninstall and reinstall the DVD driver no less than 10 times, utilizing various troubleshooting articles online.

Okay...Bad DVD Drive. No problem, $30 at walmart later I am home with a brand new DVD drive.

Out with the old, in with the brand new dvd drive.

It won't open.
It just blinks at me 5 times and does nothing.
It shows up in the drives, but interacting with it causes explorer.exe to freeze, just like the old dvd drive. Both are LG drives, but are different models.

*Heres where it gets fun.

1.) I plugged BOTH drives into my friends computer, different motherboard. Still windows 10. THEY BOTH WORK FINE.

2.) In my maddening descent, I decide to do the unthinkable. Ground zero destroy and rebuild, WITH A DIFFERENT MOTHERBOARD ENTIRELY.*

DIFFERENT MOTHERBOARD.
DIFFERENT SATA CABLES.
DIFFERENT DRIVES THAT PROVE OTHERWISE TO WORK ON DIFFERENT MACHINES.

I cannot open my new drive to reinstall windows.
I have reset BIOS to defaults on both motherboards.
My computer locks up once every hour due to a bad Windows 10 Installation (All other avenues explored, 100+ hours troubleshooting over a 30+ day period. It's the OS. It has to be.)

The BIOS detects the drive. I set it to the primary in the boot order. It will not boot to my windows 10 install disc, it just immediately loads the current windows 10 OS. This is with the drive that will open up. The other drive won't open - but it's not motor/mechanical as it opens up fine when plugged into a different PC. We have verified that the boot disc works fine

- The boot disc boots in my friends PC with his current drive.
- The boot disc boots in my friends PC with my old dvd drive.
- The boot disc boots in my friends PC with my brand new DVD drive.

None of the above is true in my PC, even after swapping entire motherboards.

I am at a complete and utter loss and am very close to sledgehammering the entire machine and going out and starting completely over from scratch. Please, if anyone can save me the $1500 this will cost me, I will order you unlimited pizza for a year.


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

Ok first, what version and where did you get your Windows 10 installer? You should have Windows 10 *1803.*
If not, you can download the Windows 10 ISO image, and burn it to a USB Flash drive with the Microsoft Media Creation tool.
Once completed, put it into the computer and boot into Setup (Bios) go to the *Boot *tab and set USB Flash drive to First Boot Device. _Save and Exit_.
After it boots to the flash drive, choose your language, and then *Custom Install*. Here Delete _ALL_ partitions so the HDD is all* Unallocated Space.* Then go *Next,* Windows will automatically create partitions and format them during the install.


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## JCarp (Aug 10, 2014)

spunk.funk said:


> Ok first, what version and where did you get your Windows 10 installer? You should have Windows 10 *1803.*
> If not, you can download the Windows 10 ISO image, and burn it to a USB Flash drive with the Microsoft Media Creation tool.
> Once completed, put it into the computer and boot into Setup (Bios) go to the *Boot *tab and set USB Flash drive to First Boot Device. _Save and Exit_.
> After it boots to the flash drive, choose your language, and then *Custom Install*. Here Delete _ALL_ partitions so the HDD is all* Unallocated Space.* Then go *Next,* Windows will automatically create partitions and format them during the install.


I got the windows 10 ISO from the microsoft Windows 10 Creation tool, today. It was a fresh burn and verified to work on a different PC.

I will look into the USB bootable flash drive method, but at this point, do you think it's the windows 10 OS? - I started with wanting to simply reinstall windows 10, but given my findings after tonight I think it might not be windows OS causing the issue?

- If i can't boot to these drives, or in the case of the new drive -- even get that one to OPEN, prior to loading into windows 10, do you think it's the operating system?

I did a complete tear down with a new motherboard and changed all SATA cables and have tried 3 total drives. Even my friends drive doesn't work in my PC.

Could it be something really weird...like the power supply? I am running out of things to test and isolate.


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

Change the power plug you are using each time you switch the DVD drive. 
Boot into Setup (Bios) Under *System Information*, it should list each of your drives. Make sure the DVD drive is being _recognized_, if not, then there is a problem with the Data cable, or power plug. Or the SATA Port the DVD drive is in on the motherboard is _Not Enabled_ in the Bios. Switch the Data cable to a different SATA port, making sure it is _Enabled._


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## Rich-M (May 2, 2007)

When you changed the motherboard was it a new one? Did you install Windows 10 clean on it?
I can't see why switching to usb flash drive to install Windows would make the least bit of difference, I find that more problematic than dvd installs frankly.
Have you tried different ram or run memtest 86 on the current ram?
How old is the psu and what make and model is it?
Can you give us all the hardware in system and then also models of changed items you tried?


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## jenae (Jun 17, 2008)

Hi, correct me if I am wrong, however you appear to be still booting to the original windows ten OS, is this the case? If you can boot to windows go to search and type:- command prompt, right click on the returned command prompt and select "run as administrator" an elevated cmd prompt will open. copy and paste all the below cmd into the cmd prompt window, press enter.

reg query "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e965-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}" /s > 0 & notepad 0

Please post the notepad output here.


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## loandtee (Feb 3, 2014)

I had the very same problem. My problem was the driver was not updated. I know some believe you do not need a driver for this but mine plainly said bad driver. I went to the correct site and downloaded drivers and bam Dvd drive worked like a charm.


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## Rich-M (May 2, 2007)

Dvd drivers have been native to Windows since Windows 3.1 I believe, so this last post makes no sense to me.
also user stated:


> I proceed to uninstall and reinstall the DVD driver no less than 10 times, utilizing various troubleshooting articles online.


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

All internal CD/DVD drives do not have any drivers to download or install except those that are a part of the Windows OS, that load automatically. Optical drives also work independently of the OS and are powered by the Motherboards Bios. If the drive is not opening, then the power cable is not plugged in. If it opens but doesn't read a disc, then there is a problem with the disc, or the laser in the drive is not reading the disc properly. If it reads the disc but doesn't boot the computer, then the Optical Drive is not the First Boot Device in the Bios. 

As for Optical Drive drivers, You can go to the _Device Manager_ and right click your DVD drive and choose to *Uninstall*, but that just removes the device, if you restart _or _right click any device in the _Device Manager_ and choose *Scan For Hardware Changes*, Windows will find the device and reload the drivers that are a part of Windows., If they were corrupted, this will load a fresh driver.

Once you get Windows installed, Please follow Jenae's suggestion to see if there is an issue with the Upper and Lower filters in the Windows Registry.


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## bassfisher6522 (Jul 22, 2012)

Test any of the 3 CD/DVD drives mentioned outside of your case.


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## JCarp (Aug 10, 2014)

Sorry everyone, was moving.

- The DVD drive is recognized in BIOS on my 3rd SATA port. First in boot priority. I have tried multiple different SATA ports on both motherboards, and six unique SATA cables. I have also swapped the power supply SATA cable with the one plugged into hard drive, as well as an additional unused SATA power cable. (PSU only has 3). It is a Thermaltake 750w PSU that was purchased August 2017.

- The DVD drive does open, but it won't read anything either in AutoPlay, or in Windows Explorer. Manually trying to interact with the drive (Right click) causes the entire OS to freeze up for 5+ minutes.

- Placing a (confirmed) bootable Windows 10 Install Disc is ignoring the DVD drive in boot priority. It goes straight to windows 10 OS login on the hard drive.

- The other (Brand new DVD drive) does not open at all on either MOBO ; it blinks 4 times when eject is pushed.

- The third DVD drive (Friends PC) blinks 4 times the same as the brand new DVD drive.

- This is not a clean windows 10 installation on the "new" motherboard. It is a Sabertooth 990FX R1.0 purchased in ~2014. The other mobo is an ASUS Pro Gaming Aura.

- I have tested all 3 dvd drives outside the case, as they are confirmed to be working on the friend's PC, which i no longer have immediate access to for further testing (I moved)

- I Have uninstalled the DVD drive via Device Manager more times than comprehendable. 

- I have also tried uninstalling the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers
- ATA Channel 0-4 , PCI IDE controllers and SATA AHCI Controller

- Here is the command prompt output requested

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e965-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}
Class REG_SZ CDROM
ClassDesc REG_SZ @%SystemRoot%\System32\StorProp.dll,-17001
IconPath REG_MULTI_SZ %SystemRoot%\System32\imageres.dll,-30
EnumPropPages32 REG_SZ storprop.dll,DvdPropPageProvider
NoInstallClass REG_SZ 1
SilentInstall REG_SZ 1
LastDeleteDate REG_BINARY D50A62851311D401

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e965-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0000
DriverDesc REG_SZ CD-ROM Drive
ProviderName REG_SZ Microsoft
DriverDateData REG_BINARY 00808CA3C594C601
DriverDate REG_SZ 6-21-2006
DriverVersion REG_SZ 10.0.17134.137
InfPath REG_SZ cdrom.inf
InfSection REG_SZ cdrom_install
MatchingDeviceId REG_SZ GenCdRom

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e965-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0003
DriverDesc REG_SZ CD-ROM Drive
ProviderName REG_SZ Microsoft
DriverDateData REG_BINARY 00808CA3C594C601
DriverDate REG_SZ 6-21-2006
DriverVersion REG_SZ 10.0.17134.137
InfPath REG_SZ cdrom.inf
InfSection REG_SZ cdrom_install
MatchingDeviceId REG_SZ GenCdRom

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e965-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\Configuration

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e965-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\Configuration\Instance
$!FriendlyName REG_SZ $BusDeviceDesc

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e965-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\Configuration\Variables

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e965-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\Configuration\Variables\BusDeviceDesc
(Default) REG_SZ DeviceProperty
PropertyGuid REG_SZ {540b947e-8b40-45bc-a8a2-6a0b894cbda2}
PropertyId REG_DWORD 0x4

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e965-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\Properties


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## Rich-M (May 2, 2007)

Secure Boot and UEFI Bios have really destroyed native ability to access other drives, run safe mode etc.... You need to go into the BIOS and disable secure boot and then enable legacy boot then you can tap F12 after pressing power button and that way select dvd drive to boot to from options and all should work well.


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

If a new DVD drive won't open, go to This PC or in File Explorer, browse to the drive and Right click it and choose E*ject*. The plastic bezel on the tray may be stuck and need a little coaxing. You can also can stick a straighten out Paper Clip into the _Eject_ hole on the front of the drive just below the tray. Once manually ejected, you should be able to eject it via the button or in Windows. 
As stated previously, if the DVD drive accepts a disc but doesn't play it, either the disc is bad, or the lasers on the drive no longer will read this disc. Try another disc that isn't burned. 
I know you are concentrating on getting _this _DVD to work but since the main reason is to reinstall Windows, use a USB Flash drive, as mentioned earlier in this thread. Do a Clean Install deleting all partitions before and the new Windows may allow this to work.


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## JCarp (Aug 10, 2014)

spunk.funk said:


> If a new DVD drive won't open, go to This PC or in File Explorer, browse to the drive and Right click it and choose E*ject*. The plastic bezel on the tray may be stuck and need a little coaxing. You can also can stick a straighten out Paper Clip into the _Eject_ hole on the front of the drive just below the tray. Once manually ejected, you should be able to eject it via the button or in Windows.
> As stated previously, if the DVD drive accepts a disc but doesn't play it, either the disc is bad, or the lasers on the drive no longer will read this disc. Try another disc that isn't burned.
> I know you are concentrating on getting _this _DVD to work but since the main reason is to reinstall Windows, use a USB Flash drive, as mentioned earlier in this thread. Do a Clean Install deleting all partitions before and the new Windows may allow this to work.


The drives that won't open on either of my motherboards, do open fine when plugged into a third, different machine. The same windows 10 DVD also works when in the same drives on the different machine.

I may explore the USB option of reinstalling Windows 10 if necessary, the PC has not frozen since switching motherboards so I will just have to hope it remains stable..


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## jenae (Jun 17, 2008)

Hi, according to the registry you are using the generic windows drivers(normal) the drivers are located in c:\windows\inf\cd_cdrom.inf.

Press win + x keys together, select "device manager" expand cdrom drive and right click select "update driver" from the options select "browse my computer" then select "let me pick from a list of available drivers..." next select "have disk" in the box "copy manufacturers files from: type c:\windows\inf, go next and then allow the drivers to install. Restart see how you go.


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## JCarp (Aug 10, 2014)

jenae said:


> Hi, according to the registry you are using the generic windows drivers(normal) the drivers are located in c:\windows\inf\cd_cdrom.inf.
> 
> Press win + x keys together, select "device manager" expand cdrom drive and right click select "update driver" from the options select "browse my computer" then select "let me pick from a list of available drivers..." next select "have disk" in the box "copy manufacturers files from: type c:\windows\inf, go next and then allow the drivers to install. Restart see how you go.


I just did this, rebooted, and still have the exact same issue


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

Any CD/DVD drive that is listed in the Bios and does not open on one computer but does on another then either the tray is stuck, or it is not getting enough power from the PSU.


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## Geekomatic (Jul 19, 2010)

Hi JCarp,

Can you burn a Linux Mint CD on your friends computer and see if that boots in yours?

If it does, then you know at least that your system is okay and that it's definitely a Windows issue.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

spunk.funk said:


> Any CD/DVD drive that is listed in the Bios and does not open on one computer but does on another then either the tray is stuck, or it is not getting enough power from the PSU.


I agree! The drives have been proven to be fully functional on another pc, within and outside Windows, with generic drivers. Your PSU seems to be the only constant while testing with your equipment, and could very well be the cause of those unexplained freezes. It is barely one year old, so it is still under the 5yr warranty period. I say take advantage of it and save yourself some bucks.


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