DVD ROM problems

My PC is trying to make me destroy it, as it gives me weird errors/problems lately. This time it are my DVD drives again, not that they won't read RW discs like last time, but they are no more recognized by Windows.

I wanted to burn a DVD now, but it seems my drives are gone. In the Device Manager they are listed with problems. So I tried to restart the PC, entered BIOS, where they are detected properly, booted to Windows, but nothing has changed. They are even not visible in Windows Explorer anymore.

It are surely not the cables, I controlled them, and they are correctly recognized in the BIOS. Also they are connected to different IDE controllers.

Anyone an idea? This makes me mad, as lately I have many problems with my PC, and only such unexplainable ones.

EDIT: Ok, problem solved. I deleted the LowerFilters value registry entry, rebooted, and it works again now, don't know why this happened though :huh2:

Strange things do sometimes just happen that have no logical reason for occurring. Did you update or install any DVD software recently that might have altered the registry? DVD writing or playback software. Sometimes even a Windows update can mess things up.

Nope, neither. I burnt a DVD on Thursday, did not touch the PC until yesterday, wanted to burn another DVD, and it didn't work anymore. That's why I thought it was very weird. Hope this won't happen all the time. Have to keep an eye on this.

That is strange. At least you did work out the problem. Maybe you have something running on the system that changed it? If it happens again try to see what is running in the background or when you launch the software you use to burn a DVD and see if that could be causing it.

Not very likely in your case I know, but you haven't let that horrible Starforce copy-protection sneak onto your PC, have you? It's been known to kill people's drives, probably because it mistakes them for virtual ones which it doesn't like.

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Originally Posted by Teho

Not very likely in your case I know, but you haven't let that horrible Starforce copy-protection sneak onto your PC, have you? It's been known to kill people's drives, probably because it mistakes them for virtual ones which it doesn't like.

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Which game has that protection? I don't install games, so this could not be the issue. As I said before, I changed nothing during 3 days, it just suddenly stopped recognizing the drives, and after editing the registry, it was fine.

That Starforce copy protection is evil. A lot of games use it, but due to a lot of customer complaints I don't think it lasted long as a popular copy protection method. Are any games still being released with it?

Here is a site with an updated list of games with this protection: http://www.glop.org/starforce/list.php