CD and DVD drives vanished in my computer (Vista)

Nazbit

Nazbit

Nazbit

Soldato
Joined
11 Dec 2004
Posts
3,871
Hi all,

Basically I booted up this morning to find my DVD and CD drives missing from the "my computer" screen.

I go in to the device manager and both devices have a little yellow icon next to them and have the same error:

Windows cannot initialize the device driver for this hardware. (Code 37)
Click to expand...

I have not changed anything and these have been running fine without problems for months, so I dont know why this is happening.

The only things I have changed recently are the ram settings in the bios which has made vista a lot more stable, and the speaker output rate in the control panel which has solved some issues with my X-fi.

Any ideas please??

Thanks



Edit: 32 Bit Business Edition, Drives are AOPEN DVD Rom and DVD RW.
 
mightynimrod said:
Is this a common fault with vista?
Click to expand...

Well I couldn't find any threads on it there, but google has lots.

No definite fixes though, some say use windows update for the driver (which says up to date) and other say delete and reinstall the driver, others say reinstall vista.

Just when I thought I had vista running properly as well.

Hopefully someone can shed some light on this.
 
Thanks mate,

OK so been doing a bit of research about this problem today, for the benefit of anyone finding this thread through search in the future....


Problem:
There is a known issue with windows vista and windows xp where cd/dvd drives can vanish from the my computer screen.

Symptoms
Drives will vanish from "My Computer"
The drives will have a yellow error icon next to them in the device manager, and right clicking on the drive and selecting properties will show the following error:
Windows cannot initialize the device driver for this hardware. (Code 37)

Cause:
It is caused by installing certain programs that involve cd or dvd writing.

Microsoft say that its a known issue and there is a list of programs that can trigger it, but I had no luck in finding the list. (However itunes and napster seem to be well known)

Solution:
There are a number of ways to fix the problem:
(1) If you don't need the program and only installed it recently you can use system restore.
(2)There is a registry fix here if you are keeping the program.

The above solutions will always work, there are also two other possible solutions below, but people have had mixed success rates with these...
(3)Delete and then reinstall the driver for the drive in the device manager
(4)Use the check for driver update facility in the device manager

Hope this is of use to someone.
 
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