Cd-rom Failure On Laptop

D

DAVEP

New Member
Hello, my DVD/CD-ROM will no longer work on my Sony FX505 Laptop. The hardware seems to be OK and I think that it's probably a software driver problem. On the Device Manager screen the error message (with !) is:
"Windows cannot initialize the device driver for this hardware. (Code 37)" I'm using Windows XP SP2.

I've also bought an external USB CD-ROM drive as a tempory fix but this comes up with the same error message. Any ideas how I could sort this out please?

Thanks

David
 
Dvd/cd-rom Failure

Thanks for the response. Bit of a PC pigmy I'm afraid! I don't have a 'restore point set' - assessed via Accessories - System Tools - System Restore. Is there another way of doing it?

Thanks

David
 
So there are no restore points at all to choose from? Hmm...

Well, even though you said the external drive didn't work, maybe we should still test the internal to be 100%. Do you have any disks that would be bootable? Perhaps a windows install disk? Try to boot to something like that and see if it works. If you can boot to a Windows disk, there is a repair option in the setup. That might be something else worth trying.

I know reloading Windows would resolve the problem if it is software related. This might not be the best option, but definetly a last resort if nothing else worked.
 
Dvd?cd-rom Problem

Thanks for the follow up. The 1st drive that the laptop looks at when it boots up is the CD_ROM. If I put in the Windows disk (restore) disk that came with the PC it reads it OK and would allow me to re-load Windows. So, I'm pretty sure that the CD-ROM is working. I don't want to re-load Windows unless all else fails. I was rather hoping that it could be that the Drive was currupted and there would be a way of just re-loading that.

David
 
I guess you mean the drivers being corrupt? That's basically what the Windows Repair option should do. It reloads the common windows components.
 
Dvd/cd-rom Problem

Yes, I did mean Drivers and not Drive . . .

Life was never simple!

The SONY CD-ROM restore disks that came with my Laptop don't seem to have a repair option - only a complete software replace. This seems to be supported by the following that I found on a web site "OEM Restore disks or hidden restore folders on the hard drive will not work for the Repair Install"

So, back to square one!

David
 
You wouldn't happen to know anyone who has a Windows XP disk, would you? As long as it matches what you have(service pack and Home/Pro/MCE) I'd imagine you could use it...

Otherwise, I'm not too sure were else to go. I kind of doubt it'd just be the drivers, but it's possible to manually reload them. Basically you just need to find them from another computer and copy them over.

...OK, I forget, does SafeMode allow you to use the CD-ROM? I'll have to check that sometime again, but if so, that might be something to look into. If it still works in Safemode, then you have some software causing a conflict rather than bad drivers.
 
Dvd/cd-rom Problem

Thanks for all you advise . .

Yes, the internal drive does work in SAFE MODE and the Laptop instantly recognised the USB External drive when I plugged it in.

Any suggestions on how to isolate the software that is causing the problem?

David
 
Dvd/cd-rom Problem

I finally managed to find a Restore Point that worked and this has got my CD-ROM working again. Thanks for all your advice.

David
 
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