Vista is great but it has a few issues.

[Kaiser]

I got Vista Ultimate 64 up and running on my recently upgraded rig and it runs nicely aside from one major problem.

VISTA CAN'T SEE MY OPTICAL DRIVES (DVD drive and my virtual drive)!

Any recommended solutions by our Vista users here at DCemu?

My drives are set up properally I mean my BIOS "see's" them clearly and Vista 64 was seeing them/using them for awhile until suddenly they dissapeared from the "My Computer" window. My Hard drives are there but my DVD drive is gone. Under device manager (and then under other devices) my DVD drive is visible with a little question mark beside it. Why can't Vista recognize it? I've tried with both of my available DVD drives. I've tried editing out the filter files out of the registries like what so many troubleshoot guides stated. But the bloody filter files don't even exist in the registry folder listed. I'm getting fed up. I've already updated Vista 64 with the latest patches, but nothing is working.

[the_eternal_dark]

Were they working before or after you updated?

If so, have you tried looking for new drivers for said optical drive(s)?

[Kaiser]

Were they working before or after you updated?

If so, have you tried looking for new drivers for said optical drive(s)?

My optical drives lack new drivers at this point in time other then the ones built into them. They stopped working half way through installing the chipset drivers.

HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GH22LP20 (LG's new 22x DVD burner)
Lite-On SOWC 18x


And finally my virtual drive via Alcohol 120% doesn't work. But unlike the others this has no possible hardware issues with it. I'm almost 99% sure this is a problem with Vista rather then my drives.

[Jesterace]

Actually it's a common problem, and there's a few fixes. One is to go into the device manager and see if you can see the drives there. If so right click and uninstall and reboot and let Vista install the drivers again.

And if that doesn't work then go into regedit and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}. Check the default key to show you've got the right class. It should read DVD/CD-ROM drives. Look in the right pane for entries called UpperFilters or LowerFilters and delete any that you spot and then reboot.

[Kaiser]

Actually it's a common problem, and there's a few fixes. One is to go into the device manager and see if you can see the drives there. If so right click and uninstall and reboot and let Vista install the drivers again.

When I reboot windows after uninstalling them via device managers they show up under my computer for a second and then quickly dissapear.

And if that doesn't work then go into regedit and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}. Check the default key to show you've got the right class. It should read DVD/CD-ROM drives. Look in the right pane for entries called UpperFilters or LowerFilters and delete any that you spot and then reboot.

There are no entries named that under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}.

[dejkirkby]

Found this:

In Windows Vista, the SATA (Serial-ATA) based optical drives such as a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive may disappear and not available right after the system boots u pagain after users enable and switch to use the Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) feature on AHCI chipset for the SATA ports in system BIOS configuration. Previously, the CD or DVD (ROM or RW or Writable) drive is working properly when the AHCI chipset is using Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment (PATA) or IDE emulation mode.

It seems like it’s a bug in Vista that causes the missing CD/DVD optical drive problem in AHCI/SATA mode. Microsoft has released a hotfix under KB928253 that will correct the problem. However, no direct download of the KB928253 patch available online and you will need to request the hotfix from Microsoft Online Customer Services.

To make life easier for those who really need the hotfix to solve the missing and disappearing SATA CD/DVD drive problem, here is the direct download link for hot fix files released and downloaded from Microsoft.

For 32-bit x86 based system: Windows6.0-KB928253-x86.msu
For 64-bit x65 based system: Windows6.0-KB928253-x64.msu

Hope it helps.

[Kaiser]

Thanks for the help guys but I managed to figure out a way to work around my problem. Took a reinstallation of Vista 64 (amongst other things) but everything works good now.

[type_theEND]

I have a better soulution:
WinXP x64. Fixed.