Dia on 29/7/2010 at 20:36
Don't understand what happened! Everything was working fine last night & this a.m. I played some of the T2 FM '3 Distinct Adventures' (it worked fine), but then decided to try the T2 FM 'King's Story', so did an 'install only' for the latter on Darkloader and suddenly got the message to insert the cd. Confusing, to say the least since the T2 cd was already in my dvd drive (cd drive hasn't worked right for the past couple years, so I use the dvd drive for games).
Anyhow, when checking on Win. Explorer I realized that the cd, dvd, & Memorex (external) dvd burner/player drives weren't showing up at all! My Memorex device shows when I click on 'Safely Remove Hardware' and all three show up on the Device Manager, but I can't get them to show on 'My Computer' (/Win. Explorer). When I right click on the cd or dvd drive (in the Device Mgr.) I get the error message: Windows cannot start this hardware device because its configuration information (in the registry) is incomplete or damaged. (Code 19)
When I right click on the Memorex dvd burner/player drive I get this error message: 'Windows successfully loaded the device driver for this hardware but cannot find the hardware device. (Code 41)'
I honestly don't know how to fix this and am terribly afraid (as in petrified) to mess with the registry. Any helpful advice, please? Thanks.
lost_soul on 29/7/2010 at 23:24
My bet is some CD-checking malware caused this problem. I had this problem on an old machine I was given, and it took 5 minutes to fix. I don't know for sure if this was what I did, but they are official instructions. (
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/982116)
I knew it wasnot a hardware problem, because Linux live CDs loaded just fine, but the machine couldn't see the CD drives in Windows XP.
Dia on 30/7/2010 at 13:59
Thanks lost_soul, but Mr. Fixit didn't work. I'm going to keep searching the Web to see if I can find a fix that I can do myself, but if I can't then it looks like I'm not gonna be playing any FMs for awhile. At least til I can afford to take my computer to the local computer fixing guy.
So far all the fixes I've found for the Code 19 error involve messing with the registry; something I really don't want to touch since I know jackshit about registries.
Al_B on 30/7/2010 at 16:54
It may not be malware - the Microsoft page suggests that it could be a problem with a filter driver which can be installed for other reasons. A quick google search suggests a particular problem with itunes, have you uninstalled it recently?
The registry may seem scary at first, but essentially it's just a structured collection of settings. Without changing anything, if you run "regedit" and expand the first level "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE", then expand "SYSTEM" then "CurrentControlSet", "Control", "Class" and finally click on the cryptic "{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}" you should see some settings on the right hand side. Do you have "UpperFilters" or "LowerFilters" listed?
Dia on 30/7/2010 at 17:26
Things I've already tried:
-Mr. Fixit = didn't work
-Uninstall from Device Mgr., then reinstall using the Wizard program = didn't work
-Uninstall from Device Mgr., then reboot my computer, hoping it would then re-recognize the 3 drives that are missing from everything except the Device Mgr. = didn't work
-Went into the Registry (sweating profusely all the while), found 4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318, but there was nothing additional listed when I highlighted both Lower & Upper, and since the instructions I was following said to 'do nothing' if no additional data shows after highlighting Lower & Upper I naturally did nothing.
Unfortunately, I don't have the disks for any of the 3 missing drives, so I guess I'm pretty much screwed. :(
P.S. I've also tried restoring my system from a previous date and was cheerfully told by my computer (after waiting endless minutes for the process to complete) that it couldn't restore from that date (even though the date on the restore calendar showed as valid).
And yes; I'm being a big Sally and feeling sorry for myself.
lost_soul on 30/7/2010 at 17:34
You can also try "system restore", under Programs/accessories/system tools. This restores your system to a previous date (snapshots are automatically taken every once in a wile).
It does not delete any user data, but any security updates or programs you've installed since that date will need to be re-installed. It also restores the registry to that given date. It is also reversible.
Dia on 30/7/2010 at 18:29
Thanks again, Ls, but I've already tried twice to restore my system to two different previous dates. My computer just says it can't do that (after going thru the whole process & rebooting both times).
Brian The Dog on 30/7/2010 at 20:17
Are they showing up in Disk Management? Right-click on "My Computer" on the desktop, choose "Manage", and then select Disk Management on the left side of the window.
You could also try burning an Ubuntu live-CD or another bootable OS such as FreeDos on UBCD and see if they can spot it. That will tell you if it's a hardware or a driver/software issue.
Dia on 30/7/2010 at 20:23
Checked and they're not showing up on Disk Mngmt. - only on Device Mgr. Can't burn anything since my burner drives won't register. Thanks anyhow Brian.
Zerker on 30/7/2010 at 20:38
Does the drive show up in the Bios still?
If you have a spare USB key, you can also try downloading (
http://www.slax.org/) SLAX and creating a bootable USB Linux. Then boot into this linux and test your drive from there. It will at least isolate hardware issues from Windows BS issues.
Edit: Just noticed Brian suggested something similar, but using CDs ;)
