CD-ROM device won't open or run disk

My Asus DRW 24B1ST CD/DVD-Rom device works in Dos (bootCD works no problems), and is recognized by my WinXP Device Manager and listed as working properly. But when I try to run or view a disk from My Computer, all I get is a blank window. The window has the correct partition/drive identity, so I know it's pointing to the device, but it just won't interact with the disk.

The same device was working fine in a previous WinXP installation on the same computer, but when I installed another WinXP sp2 (I had lost access to the original installation) I had a few glitches and this is the remaining one that needs to be fixed.

BTW, I can bootup from a bootCD and run a miniXP and have no problem with the CD/DVD-ROM device, so the issue must be with the current WinXP installation.

Any suggestions for repairing this problem?
 
Wow very interesting. Yo had mentioned it will boot to disc, have you tried while in safe mode. So if you restart computer and utilize the function f8 button go to safe mode with networking check to see if it works in there. If it does then I assume it is driver related issue. Of course in safe mode it loads minimum drivers to have a functioning safe environment. Even though windows recognizes it in device manager does not mean it has a working driver. I would even go as far as uninstalling the driver and reinstalling one from the manufactures website. You could first try uninstalling the driver then rebooting the computer then letting windows reinstalling the driver upon boot up to see if that fixes it first. Hope this helps let me know what you find.
 
Do you know the hardware specs on that drive. What brand and or model? I can locate one for you to test if you like...
 
The drive is an Asus DRW-24B1ST . I've been looking at the drivers and comparing them to those on my other computer (with a Sony Optiarc AD-7260S CD/DVD drive. The Sony installation has the same named 4 drivers, plus one (pfc.sys) that's not listed for the Asus drive (in Device Manager). One thing I could do is install the pfc.sys into the Asus drive, but I'm not sure how to do it...can I just place it in the Windows/System32/Drivers folder, or is there more to installing it.

Also, one the same computer where the Asus drive lives, I had three other OS installations (right now inaccessible) and I compared the versions of the four drivers currently installed to the Asus drive with the same named in the other OS installations. There are different ones, older and newer. It could take the ones used in a successful WinXP installation, where the same Asus drive worked fine, and install them into the current Asus drive WinXP...but I don't know the right way to do that. Can you steer me in the right direction?

Thanks for all the help...John
 
Hey sorry for the delayed response. Ok before we get neck deep lets try this to make sure we are on the right path. Good ole Microsoft Fix it. It should Identify the problem and sometimes it can correct hhe driver issue.that site for the download is at.....
http://support2.microsoft.com/mats/cd_dvd_drive_problems

If Microsoft Fix It doesnt resolve, (50% chnce) the you can go to this following website, I have found many articles where this issue happens frequent. You can download the firware update under firmware and lets see if that helps.
http://support.asus.com/Download.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=DRW-24B1ST&p=2&os=17

If that doesnt work then it looks like we will have to remove the DVD drive driver from device manager and delete file from the System32/Drivers folder. And then reinstall a fresh driver which im trying to locate now. Windows should auto detect but if the same bad driver is in the drivers folder it will use it first. But try those other steps first.

The last thing I saw and this is at the extreme is to do a Windows Repair with XP disc.....but I dont want to give up, this is a last resort!!

Hope this helps, Vern
 
I've tried a couple more things...first I tried a bunch of different CD's, commercial ones, home created ones, and found that on a few of them I could view folders, and in one case could open the folder and view the files. But I couldn't open a file. I was using Ztree, and also My Computer.

I made a list of the 4 driver files listed in Device Manager(for the Asus device) and searched the computer to see how many versions I could find. There were about 4 of each (I had a 3 or 4 OS installations on this computer...they're currently unaccessible). Some versions were newer and some were older. I'm thinking of trying the newer ones on this WinXP installation, but I'm not sure how to go installing them.

I also noticed that on my other computer (with a Sony Optiarc CD/DVD device) there was a fifth driver being used(pfc.sys) and I wonder if I might be missing that driver for the Asus DRW24-B1ST.

(I just posted this without seeing your recent post...I'll reply to that soon).
 
Back