How do I get my laptop to recognize my cd/dvd disk drive.

kerwin1982

A while back, my laptop stopped showing that I had a cd/dvd drive in both "My Computer" and "Device Manager".  The Bios was showing a drive, and the drive works in other laptops.  I have done the whole regestry delete of the upper and lower files, that Microsoft said to do.....still no luck.  I have even taken the laptop back to fatory settings via the Alt+F10 function. I have also tried other working drives, and still no luck on the said laptop.  I know it is not the drive, the motherboard seems to read it (as it will let me boot from it), but Windows just will not show any drive.  I am using an Acer Aspire 5100 running Windows Vista Home Premium.  I am surprised that I am having this issue, being that I have 3 acer laptops and this is the only one giving me a problem.  The laptop is 5 years old and out of warrenty.  Normaly I would just buy a new laptop, but I am passing this down to my 10 year old daughter, and just can't warrent spending money on a new laptop.  Especially when money is tight.

 

Tried Acer's Erecovery tool, and now the drive isn't even showing up in Bios......this is frustrating.

Tommy-Acer

It sounds like there may be some indication of intermittant hardware issues.

 

"A while back..." indicates that there is an ongoing issue that has not been resolved.

 

I am gratified that you were able to locate information on removing the upper and lower filters in the registry.  That is a good first step. 

I would also suggest booting into Safe Mode and looking at all of the DVD/CDROM drives listed in Device Manager.  Removing them and then booting into Normal Mode should reinstall the drivers for the optical drive.

 

I'm sorry to hear that the drive is no longer being seen in BIOS.  This tends to indicate an actual hardware issue.  It may not be the drive itself that has an issue, but a connector or other item on the mainboard.