DVD Writer problem

[Steve Maskery]

Morning all.

My DVD ROM and DVD Writer drives are not working properly. They have the yellow warning by them in Device manager.

If I delete them and let Windows reinstall them it complains about the entries in the registry being missing or incomplete.

Can anyone tell me how I can force a virgin install of the drivers (without re-installing XP!) so that it writes the registry entries it needs?

The Writer is a Ricoh MP5240A, and the Ricoh site says it doesn't have special drivers for it, it uses the MS drivers. The DVD reader is just reported as a CD ROM drive.

XP, SP2.

Many, many thanks.

 

[woodshavings]

Steve, jus a quick thought. If they were working previously, have you tried the Restore function to the time they were OK?
John

 

[Steve Maskery]

Hi John
Well it's been a long time since they worked properly, I just haven't got round to sorting it out. I've installed quite a bit of software recently, and I don't want to have to do that all over again.

Cheers
Steve

 

[mr]

First thing to try perhaps is removing them from control panel add remove hardware and then rebooting so that the machine does its plug and play thing and reinstalls them.

The wee exlamation marks in device mangler could indicate that something else is using the same interrupt settings, have you installed anything new in the way of hardware recently?

Mike

 

[Steve Maskery]

Hi Mike
Thanks, but I've already tried that. I'm pretty sure that it is screwed up because of Adobe software I've installed, not hardware.

I'm sure it must be possible to force a virgin install, even if it means deleting stuff in the registry. But here we meet the limits of my expertise.


Cheers
Steve

 

[mr]

Before you do anything to the registry itself, back it up, instructions on how to do that are here
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756

Finding corrupt keys in the registry is quite another thing though. If youre sure its the adobe software you could try uninstalling that and see if that helps. Then obviously reinstall afterwards. Have you googled for any known issues with your software or hardware? Sometimes thats a worthwhile few minutes spent.

Mike

 

[Argee]

Deleting the devices and then allowing Windows to re-install would re-use the existing drivers, surely?

Go to Control Panel, System, Hardware, Device Manager, then right-click on each drive. Go to "Properties," Driver tab, Rollback Driver option.

If that doesn't work, right-click on each drive and select "Update Driver." Allow Internet searching for the latest versions.

If neither of those works, use the "Uninstall Driver" option in Properties. Then do a cold re-start (shut down then switch back on, rather than resetting or restarting). See what happens then. If it still makes no difference, you might have to hack around in the registry, but I'd have thought that should only need to be a last resort.

Ray.

 

[mr]

The manual for that model says that if you see the ! in device mangler then you possibly need an E-IDE driver from your pc manufacturer which isnt particularly helpful.

Although it also says drivers are not required, drivers are available and you can download the driver file here

ftp://download.ricohpmmc.com/Writer/mp5240

Mike

 

[Steve Maskery]

HI Ray
Done all that, says it can't roll back. I've done everything you suggest (bar the reg hacking, of course).

Mike
Yes, I have that file, but it is a firmware driver update, and it doesn't see the drive brecasue it's not installed properly, I can't update it!

Oh woe is me, woe, woe and thrice woe.

 

[Steve Maskery]

I am well impressed.

After Mike said I might need a driver from HP I looked on their site. It's not listed in the list of acailable drivers.

However there is a range of Contact Us options, one of which is to chat live with a techie. So, expecting "You are in a queue, one of our operators will be with you sometime this year" I pressed the button.

I was chatting (well, typing) with Shania in a matter of seconds, she knew exactly what to do, I downloaded a fix file, ran it, job done.

Everything is tickety-boo.

Excellent, excellent free support. Unlike MS who said "We don't give free support".

10/10 to HP.

Cheers
Steve

 

[mr]

Sorted? Hurrah for HP
Mike