The CD drive or the DVD drive does not work as expected on a computer that is running Windows Vista

Symptoms

The CD drive or DVD drive on your computer no longer works as expected when the computer restarts after you complete one of the following actions:

• You upgrade a computer to Windows Vista.

• You install Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1).

• You install or uninstall applications that have a CD/DVD filter driver.

Cause

This problem may occur for one of the following reasons:

• The filter drivers in the CD and the DVD storage stack are not migrated successfully to Windows Vista.

• You uninstalled CD software that does not correctly remove itself in the registry.

• You installed software that adds filter drivers in the CD and the DVD storage stack that interfere with existing filters.

Resolution

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

322756 How to back up and restore the registry in Windows

To resolve this problem, remove the affected filter drivers. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Click Start  , type regedit in the Start Search box, and then click regedit in the Programs list.
   
    If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type your password or click Continue.

2. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} Warning There can be many instances of the registry subkey that is mentioned in step 2. You must make sure that you are in the appropriate registry subkey before you change the UpperFilters and the LowerFilters values. To verify that you are in the appropriate registry subkey, make sure that the Default value is DVD/CD-ROM and the Class value is CDROM.

3. If you see UpperFilters in the pane on the right side, right-click UpperFilters, and then click Delete.

4. Click Yes to confirm the removal of the UpperFilters registry entry.

5. If you see LowerFilters in the pane on the right side, right-click LowerFilters, and then click Delete.

6. Click Yes to confirm the removal of the LowerFilters registry entry.

7. Exit Registry Editor, and then restart the computer.
   

Note  After you remove the UpperFilters registry entry and the LowerFilters registry entry, you may lose functionality in certain programs, such as CD recording programs. In this scenario, you must reinstall any affected programs. If this problem occurs again, contact the program vendor to determine whether an update is available for the program. 

For information about your hardware manufacturer, go to the following website:

Hardware and software vendor contact information

More Information

For more information about the filter drivers that may be loaded in Windows Vista, run the DevCon program. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Obtain and extract the DevCon program. The following file is available for download from the Microsoft Download Center:

   [Asset 4013443]Download the DevCon package now.Release Date: Jan-29-2003 For more information about how to obtain this program and about how to use this program, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
   

   311272 The DevCon command-line utility functions as an alternative to Device Manager

2. Click Start  , type cmd in the Start Search box, right-click cmd in the Programs list, and then click Run as administrator.
   
    If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type your password or click Continue.

3. At the command prompt, change the directory to the directory to which you extracted the DevCon files.

4. Type devcon stack gencdrom, and then press ENTER.

Information that resembles the following appears:

IDE\CDROM<name>_____CDRW121032______1.08\5&60546BC&0&0.0.0
    Name: <name>     CDRW121032
    Setup Class: {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} CDROM
    Upper filters:
        <driver name>
    Controlling service:
        cdrom
    Lower filters:
        <driver name>
1 matching device(s) found. 

References

For more information about a similar problem that you may experience on a computer that is running Microsoft Windows XP, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

314060 You can no longer access the CD drive or the DVD drive, or you receive an error message after you remove a CD recording program or a DVD recording program in Windows XP: "error code 31"