I have a Dell VOSTRO 1700 running VISTA, purchased March 2008 (out of warranty). I used the Toshiba DVD Drive only a few times. Since Oct 2009, the laptop unit (softwarewise) does not ''see'' the Drive. When I open and then close the Drive, the Drive light comes on. Dell wants $149 just to look at the unit (shipped at my expense of course). any suggestions as to what to try? Thank you, Mike Stevens

Hi,

This is becoming a common problem. Let's see if we can save you $150!!

If your CD-ROM or DVD-ROM Drive Appears To Be Missing then you will need to manually edit your registry.

Follow the instruction below.

Click Start Menu. In the Search box, type regedit, and then click OK. A Registry Editor window will open up.

1. In Registry Editor, expand My Computer, and then expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
2. Expand SYSTEM, and then expand CurrentControlSet.
3. Expand Control, and then expand Class.
4. Under Class, click {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}.
5. In the right pane (topic area), click UpperFilters.

Note An UpperFilters.bak registry entry may also appear. To delete the UpperFilters registry entry, you must click UpperFilters and not UpperFilters.bak.
6. On the Edit menu, click Delete.
7. When you receive the following message, click Yes to confirm the deletion of the UpperFilters registry entry:
Are you sure you want to delete this value?
The UpperFilters registry entry is removed from the {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} registry subkey.

Note Do not exit Registry Editor. You must have this program for the next step.
Step 3: Delete the LowerFilters registry entry
1. In Registry Editor, expand My Computer, and then expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
2. Expand SYSTEM, and then expand CurrentControlSet.
3. Expand Control, and then expand Class.
4. Under Class, click {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}.
5. In the right pane (topic area), click LowerFilters.

Note An LowerFilters.bak registry entry may also appear. To delete the LowerFilters registry entry, you must click LowerFilters and not LowerFilters.bak.
6. On the Edit menu, click Delete.
7. When you receive the following message, click Yes to confirm the deletion of the LowerFilters registry entry:
Are you sure you want to delete this value?
The LowerFilters registry entry is removed from the {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} registry subkey.
8. Exit Registry Editor.
Step 4: Restart the computer.


This should resolve the problem and there is no easy fix unless you factory restore or reinstall the operating system.

Good luck and please let me know if there is anymore advice that you need.