Fixing Lost CD-ROM Drive after Using Shop Manual DVD

[Cadillac Jim]

Recently I lost my CD-ROM drive after running my 2011 GM shop manual DVD. The CD-ROM simply disappeared from my Windows 7 drive list in the My Computer window. A check with the hardware manager (Start, Control Panel, Hardware and Sound, Device Manager; or, "mmc devmgmt.msc" in a console window or the Start Search box), the Status window in the Properties of the CD-ROM drive showed a message:

Windows cannot start this hardware device because it's configuration (in the registry) is incomplete or damaged. (Code 19)

This does NOT mean that the CD-ROM/DVD drive has gone bad, or that you have a bad driver. I got a new drive and now have a perfectly good surplus Blu-Ray read/write drive and the new one didn't fix the problem. Also, don't download any of the free "fix my computer" no-name software stuff. What has happened is that something in an application that uses your CD-ROM has changed a registry entry for your CD-ROM drive and failed to delete it successfully on exit. You can fix this yourself in a few seconds. Read on.

I did a web search on the error and turned up Microsoft Knowledge Base article number 314060:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060

On this page, Microsoft has a utility that will automatically fix the problem for Windows XP and Vista. They recommend that you do it yourself with Windows 7. Windows 8 isn't mentioned, but I also found this procedure recommended for Vista under KB 929461, so it probably works for all 32/64 bit versions of Windows (NT, 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8, etc. and maybe even some of the 16-bit versions like W95/98/ME, or even W3.x).

You edit the registry. If in doubt, back up a copy of the registry first. Then, edit registry entry

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

If you see registry keys UpperFilters or LowerFilters, delete these keys. That's it. You're done. Reboot and your CD-ROM will be there and operate as usual.

[Bruce Nunnally]

Certainly an odd thing to have happen & thank you for reporting the issue & solution.

[Texas Jim]

Thanks Jim...

I will remember that... or try to... LOL

[Cadillac Jim]

I think it's because something crashed when the GM software hairball was backing out, or perhaps I closed a window somewhere instead of closing IE and it didn't shut down properly. I certainly wasn't doing anything else with the CD-ROM drive lately, although it's always possible something updated or whatever.