CD/DVD drive has completely vanished--MS fix does not rest..

Good Evening. My CD/DCD drive has been missing since Spring of last year.
I do not use it that much, so I do not remember exactly when it vanished,
but it is risky not to have it in case (as happened to me last week) my
laptop connect card software (that allows me to get online) goes down and I
need to reinstall it using the CD or other similar situations.

I am running XP Pro SP3 v. 3300 on a Sony VAIO notebook model model VGN SZ
240. I installed SP3 on 3/19/2008. So, this problem started after
installing SP3. I seem to have the same problem that others who have posted
here describe, except that it does not get resolved by using the MS Registry
edit procedure for deleting the upper and lower filters. I have no error
messages, no flags in the Device Manager, and in fact there is not even any
reference to my CD/DVD drive in the Device Manager or the drives list in My
Computer or in System information. In the Registry, the upper and lower
filter files have now been deleted (the .bak files are also missing, but I
did not delete them).

When I put a disk in the CD/DVD drive in my notebook, the yellow LED light
on the drive door flashes for about five seconds. After maybe 4 seconds of
the light flashing, I can hear the drive start to spin in the normal fashion.
Then, after another second or so, the light goes off entirely and the
spinning stops.

I am using a Sony VAIO notebook, . I tried calling Sony but was not
successful in fixing the problem. I asked Sony to send me the original
drivers, but Sony told me that they did not have any drivers available for
this drive. They had no way of helping me--they were not even aware of the
recommended MS fix which seems to help most people with this problem.

I have searched the internet but I can't find any solutions except for the
MS upper/lower filter procedure. I have also removed DVGate and Click to
DVD. I received some error messages in the Add/Remove Programs app for both
of these, so I had to delete the folders and contents manually from Explorer.
I know this is a bad idea, but I must be getting frustrated or desperate to
solve this problem.

There are no viruses or performance issues with my notebook, no driver
confilcts, and it only has this one problem. I perform regular maintenace
and keep all programs updated.

Do you have any suggestions that might possibly help me to resolve this
challenging dilemma? I would be sooo grateful if I could restore access to
my CD/DVD drive.

On Feb 13, 7:37 pm, Nile wrote:
>  Good Evening.   My CD/DCD  drive has been missing since Spring of last year.
>  I do not use it that much, so I do not remember exactly when it vanished,
> but it is risky not to have it in case (as happened to me last week) my
> laptop connect card software (that allows me to get online) goes down and I
> need to reinstall it using the CD or other similar situations.  
>
> I am running XP Pro SP3 v. 3300 on a Sony VAIO notebook model model VGN SZ
> 240.  I installed SP3 on 3/19/2008.  So, this problem started after
> installing SP3.  I seem to have the same problem that others who have posted
> here describe, except that it does not get resolved by using the MS Registry
> edit procedure for deleting the upper and lower filters.  I have no error
> messages, no flags in the Device Manager, and in fact there is not even any
> reference to my CD/DVD drive in the Device Manager or the drives list in My
> Computer or in System information.  In the Registry, the upper and lower
> filter files have now been deleted (the .bak files are also missing, but I
> did not delete them).
>
> When I put a disk in the CD/DVD drive in my notebook, the yellow LED light
> on the drive door flashes for about five seconds.  After maybe 4 seconds of
> the light flashing, I can hear the drive start to spin in the normal fashion.
>  Then, after another second or so, the light goes off entirely and the
> spinning stops.
>
> I am using a Sony VAIO notebook, .  I tried calling Sony but was not
> successful in fixing the problem.  I asked Sony to send me the original
> drivers, but Sony told me that they did not have any drivers available for
> this drive.  They had no way of helping me--they were not even aware of the
> recommended MS fix which seems to help most people with this problem.
>
> I have searched the internet but I can't find any solutions except for the
> MS upper/lower filter procedure.  I have also removed DVGate and Click to
> DVD.  I received some error messages in the Add/Remove Programs app for both
> of these, so I had to delete the folders and contents manually from Explorer.
>  I know this is a bad idea, but I must be getting frustrated or desperate to
> solve this problem.
>
> There are no viruses or performance issues with my notebook, no driver
> confilcts, and it only has this one problem.  I perform regular maintenace
> and keep all programs updated.
>
> Do you have any suggestions that might possibly help me to resolve this
> challenging dilemma?  I would be sooo grateful if I could restore access to
> my CD/DVD drive.

is this an internal or external cd/dvd drive? usb? [reason asked is,
sometimes the usb roots can be remap'd with an xp update] other words
the driver for the usb can be switched from that of sony or other
controller manufacturer to microsofts and cause this issue. had it
happen to me once. also, when you boot xp in safe mode and go into
device manager under view click on show hidden devices.. see if cd/dvd
drive is listed there. if it is.. delete it, reboot and see if it
comes back in properly. other options are to delete the ide ata/atapi
controller listing in device manager and reboot to see if it will come
back with the cd rom listed. now make sure you have the proper driver
cd or xp sp3 cd around cause chances are when you reboot its gonna ask
you for it if it can't find the drivers on the hd.

good luck.

tn