Windows 10 and strange CD/DVD drive problem

[sorcerer]

Ok, this has got to be something simple but it's driving me crazy.

Got in a Toshiba Satellite C50-B-139 laptop that was originally running Win 8 and has now been 'upgraded' to Win 10 (Home x64) with 4GB RAM and Celeron processor.

The CD/DVD drive used to work perfectly under 8 but has never worked since the upgrade to 10. It's a TSSTcorp CDDVDW SU-208FB and it is present in Device Manager (tried uninstalling and reinstalling from there but no joy), where it's labelled as 'This device is working properly' but it doesn't show up in Windows Explorer.

'Autoplay' is enabled, but it doesn't. Put any CD or DVD into the drive and it doesn't even spin up and nothing ever shows in Windows Explorer or starts to play. Similarly, if I put in a blank disc to burn something on it, the burning program just keeps asking me to insert a blank disc into the drive, even though there's one already in there.

I seem to remember something many moons ago about 'upper and lower registers' or something but it eludes me for the moment. Any thoughts?

 

[Larry Sabo]

I seem to remember something many moons ago about 'upper and lower registers' or something but it eludes me for the moment.

Googling "CD upper lower filter" provides the answer.

 

[sorcerer]

Doh!! Thanks Larry, I'm having a stupid day today I think! Thanks to your prompting I did indeed find the info regarding the upper and lower filters but unfortunately that's not the answer to my problem because there are no listings or entries for them.

 

[carmen617]

On the off chance that it's the drive itself, have you tried swapping it out? Or at least reseating it? Does an external optical drive work?

 

[sorcerer]

On the off chance that it's the drive itself, have you tried swapping it out? Or at least reseating it? Does an external optical drive work?

A spare drive that I swapped doesn't work and an external USB optical drive isn't recognised, even though the same drive works well in the three other machines I've got here. Thanks though.

 

[Larry Sabo]

Here is what I did when I last had this problem:

- no upper/lower filters in registry
- assign drive letter to DVD-RW in Disk Management: no change
- run H/W Troubleshooter: only tried to fix broken Canoscan driver: not W7 compatible
- create new key for HKLM\System\\Control\atapi per MS site
- now get Devices with Removavble Medi in Computer, wasn't there before
- expand it and DVD-RW and my flash drive icons display

Didn't document the link to the MS article so some Googling required. (I'll update if/when I find it.)

Edit: Have a gander at this article, which claims to fix the problem: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/587779/win-10-no-dvd-drive-fix/

 

[sorcerer]

Thanks Larry, still no joy I'm afraid. I now have a DVD Drive icon in 'Computer' but when I put a disc in that should autoplay, it doesn't. If I then double-click the icon, or right-click and select open, the drive bay opens up and a message telling me to insert a disc appears.

 

[cypress]

Give Windows Tweaking All in One Repair tool a run. This will help scans for various other issues going on. Hopefully it can find a fix for that.

http://www.tweaking.com/content/page/windows_repair_all_in_one.html

 

[Larry Sabo]

If I then double-click the icon, or right-click and select open, the drive bay opens up and a message telling me to insert a disc appears.

I assume you have tried different DVDs/CDs that open fine on other hardware, and the drive is a DVD-R/W or DVD-ROM, not a CD-R/W or CD-ROM. (not meant to insult--it happened to me.) I would try a known good optical drive at this point, although it sounds improbably that there would be both registry and hardware issues. Will the system boot live a bootable optical disc?

 

[mr m]

I built a super fast PC for my Dad. An Intel i7 Skylake and clean Win 10 install on an Samsung SSD. Man, does this rig fly! About $1,050 in parts from Newegg. It takes longer for the BIOS to load than Win!

Anyway, similar issue with an optical drive. New (Samsung branded) TSST SH-224 CD/DVD recorder. The UEFI and dev mgr see and access it fine but not Win Explorer. I haven't had a chance to troubleshoot it yet other than realizing that if I go to the dev mgr and look at the properties of the driver, that query seems to wake Win 10 up and suddenly the drive will spin up and read whatever disc it loads.

Oh yeah, I also went to TSST's web page to look for the latest firmware but no joy.

I've been trying to hook up with my Pops for some remote troubleshooting so I'll let you know if I find anything.

 

[sorcerer]

I assume you have tried different DVDs/CDs that open fine on other hardware, and the drive is a DVD-R/W or DVD-ROM, not a CD-R/W or CD-ROM. (not meant to insult--it happened to me.) I would try a known good optical drive at this point, although it sounds improbably that there would be both registry and hardware issues. Will the system boot live a bootable optical disc?

Haha, no worries Larry, but yes, I've tried it with other discs that open ok on other hardware and no go. The system doesn't boot a Linux live CD or a Macrium Reflect boot disc, nor can they be opened/explored within Windows as per other discs - but thanks for your continuing efforts my friend.

 

[sorcerer]

Give Windows Tweaking All in One Repair tool a run. This will help scans for various other issues going on. Hopefully it can find a fix for that.

http://www.tweaking.com/content/page/windows_repair_all_in_one.html

Will do Cypress, thanks.

 

[sorcerer]

I built a super fast PC for my Dad. An Intel i7 Skylake and clean Win 10 install on an Samsung SSD. Man, does this rig fly! About $1,050 in parts from Newegg. It takes longer for the BIOS to load than Win!

Anyway, similar issue with an optical drive. New (Samsung branded) TSST SH-224 CD/DVD recorder. The UEFI and dev mgr see and access it fine but not Win Explorer. I haven't had a chance to troubleshoot it yet other than realizing that if I go to the dev mgr and look at the properties of the driver, that query seems to wake Win 10 up and suddenly the drive will spin up and read whatever disc it loads.

Oh yeah, I also went to TSST's web page to look for the latest firmware but no joy.

I've been trying to hook up with my Pops for some remote troubleshooting so I'll let you know if I find anything.

Thanks mr m, I look forward to hearing the outcome

 

[Larry Sabo]

Hmmm, if it won't boot an otherwise bootable optical disc, no point messing with Tweaking, IMO.
If you can boot Linux on a flash drive and see if it can see a disc in the optical drive, and it can't, I'd say it's a BIOS or hardware problem. Otherwise, I'm out of ideas.

 

[sorcerer]

Hmmm, if it won't boot an otherwise bootable optical disc, no point messing with Tweaking, IMO.
If you can boot Linux on a flash drive and see if it can see a disc in the optical drive, and it can't, I'd say it's a BIOS or hardware problem. Otherwise, I'm out of ideas.

Well I tried booting from a Linux Live USB drive last night and that cannot recognise any CD or DVD placed in the drive either, so it is indeed looking like the drive itself has failed. I did swap it out earlier in the day but got the same results because I assumed my spare drive was working but this now brings that into question (it came from a laptop that was beyond economic repair because of a dead motherboard).

Thanks for all the help guys, I do appreciate it.

 

[Larry Sabo]

I forgot to also suggest resetting the BIOS to optimized defaults and trying the USB test again.

 

[sorcerer]

I forgot to also suggest resetting the BIOS to optimized defaults and trying the USB test again.

Thanks Larry, I'll give it a try when I get back - currently at the dentist

 

[cyabro]

Probably not the same issue but we have found that with some toshibas you need to uninstall the recovery disk creator software to get the optical drive working, if they have upgraded to win10.

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

Probably not the same issue but we have found that with some toshibas you need to uninstall the recovery disk creator software to get the optical drive working, if they have upgraded to win10.

This would be due to the upper/lower filters if you weren't aware, which has been checked. Most, if not all CD/DVD software creates filters in the registry which can cause issues, hence checking for them in the registry when an issue like this arises.

 

[sorcerer]

Well I tried loading optimal settings in BIOS and I'd already uninstalled the recovery disc creator but still no joy. I can only assume that it's the drive itself now. Thanks again folks.