[Rivera42]

As previously stated, I am not.

[Hal356]

I apologize for redundancy, but at least we know that it is focused on your CD rom drive. All I can say at this point is for you to put in a different CD rom drive if you haven't already, and give it a test. If you have already tried that, I apologize a 2nd time.

[Rivera42]

I believe it has something to do with how Windows or Windows Explorer communicates with the drive.
I do notice the issue occurs with the "CD Drive" aspect of one of my U3 flash drives, the Memorex, which in all other regards works fine. The SanDisk U3 drives display their CD partitions as "U3 System Files" which is what the Memorex is also supposed to do, except that what it actually shows is a generic CD drive. However, the volume size is displayed correctly and the drive itself functions as it should.

[Hal356]

Have you tried removing all other removable media besides the CD rom drive. This includes all 3 of your flash drives. What letter is assigned to your CD rom drive once all of the other removable media has been removed under My Computer?

[AcaCandy]

I'd still try the upper and lower filter removal. They will be put back by the problematic software when you run it the next time anyway

[Rivera42]

Originally Posted by Hal356

Have you tried removing all other removable media besides the CD rom drive. This includes all 3 of your flash drives. What letter is assigned to your CD rom drive once all of the other removable media has been removed under My Computer?

I've tried that. With or without the other items, it's always drive D.

Originally Posted by AcaCandy

I'd still try the upper and lower filter removal. They will be put back by the problematic software when you run it the next time anyway

Still haven't narrowed down which one is actually the problem. Could it maybe have something to do with a persistent error message I get from VLC Media Player? Often when I run this program Windows reports that it needs to close the prog and offers me the chance to send an error report to Microsoft. Oddly enough, the program will continue to run until I click OK on the dialog; if I just leave the error message hanging there in the middle of my screen, the music will keep on playing.

Sorry I haven't been on but I did a 14 hour shift yesterday which took out any mental acuity I may have had for troubleshooting.

Would it be reasonable to try msconfig before any registry tweaks?

Also, further research into the nondestructive repair install suggests to me that not only might it not help, but with my "sketchy" Dell CD it might not even be possible. Of course, I might be mistaken.

EDIT:
I think the problem can be described as the drive contents not being auto-detected; something called a "media change notification"?. Any other media I connect is immediately auto-detected. When I connect the floppy drive, webcam, flash drive, printer, MP3 player or SD card, or when I mount a virtual drive and load a disc image, Windows immediately and automatically finds it, reads the contents, and if there are auto-run items, it will launch them. If the peripheral contains data files, I receive the "What Do You Want Windows To Do" message. This is what isn't happening with the optical drive. Also, even after I open the drive in Windows Explorer, the volume label isn't displayed - only the generic "DVD+-RW Drive" label. But as I've mentioned over and over, the computer does realize there's a disc in there once I point it to the disc contents myself, and it will read/write to/from the disc.

Additional Troubleshooting Steps Performed:
Uninstalled Winamp, VLC Player, and DVD Flick, "safely remove"d U3 Flash Drive, and powered-down. Disconnected webcam and floppy drive, and shut off the printer. Restarted Windows. No change. Inserted U3 Drive, and now at least (or should I say, for this session) the "CD" partition of the U3 drive is actually displaying the correct volume label in Windows Explorer.
Reinstalled the current versions (from the Internet) of the above named apps after the removal failed to solve the problem. FWIW I really think it was one of the "portable" burners that did this, either InfraRecorder Portable or DeepBurner Portable.

[AcaCandy]

Have you tried booting with the Dell cd yet to see what options it gives you?

[Rivera42]

Originally Posted by AcaCandy

Have you tried booting with the Dell cd yet to see what options it gives you?

I placed the XP_PRO_SP2 disc in the tray and shutdown/powered up.

It read the disc during startup. I could hear the drive (no funny noises) and the light was blinking. The computer did not try to boot from the CD. It booted into my OS.

Windows correctly displayed the disc title and icon, however when I ejected the disc using the eject command in Windows Explorer the title and icon remained displayed in My Computer. The other "CD Drive," that U3 partition on the flash drive, didn't display the correct volume label until I ejected and physically removed and reinserted the flash drive. Now the correct volume label appears, "U3 System Files (G".

Now it persists in displaying the icon and volume label for the XP disc despite the fact that the disc is no longer in the tray. Clicking refresh does nothing, although properties>volumes>populate delivers the correct information within its dialog, that of course being that it's an empty drive tray.

When the disc is in the tray I can double click setup.exe and go to the usual Windows XP setup menu.

I may have mentioned already but I've been putting in 14 hour shifts at work so I do apologize for the delay in responding.

[AcaCandy]

Sounds like you don't have the bios setup set to boot from the XP cd, OR the cd is not bootable.

I still think the "other" cd drives that you have going are part of the conflict.

[Rivera42]

Is there a next step, apart from uninstalling every single image burner, media player and virtual drive manager on my computer, then scrapping those upper and lower filter things (which I still don't know what they are/what they do/where they comefrom) and praying that solves it?

This isn't exactly keeping me from using the computer, but if you've read this thread you know this issue is still unacceptable regardless.

[AcaCandy]

Do you have another hard drive available to you? Or is partitioning this one an option? Partition Magic? available to you?


I'm thinking maybe a new install of Windows to show you that yours is broken......Sorry for the delay in replying, I'm out of town right now.

[Rivera42]

This HD has custom partitions, a Dell diagnostic utility partition and the MediaDirect section. I don't think I'd know how to restore those in the event of a clean installation.

At some point I'm going to pick up one of the Seagate xhd's, or a Maxtor. I've heard them discussed in these forums and I'd like to grab one for my redundant backups. Unlike the WD MyBook xhd that I have now, I'm going to format the new one NTFS, not FAT32. I didn't know any better at the time

Of course, that's got to come after I can shore up $300 for retail XP Pro, after I pay my bills for the month. I hope it's still available. I have that amount now, but I have bills to pay. 14 hour shifts or no 14 hour shifts, I'm far from well-off, ya feel me.

I still haven't used the MS Autoplay Repair Wizard. Not for nothing but I've been nursing a growing distrust of their free downloads. What is your take on this?

I hope you are enjoying your trip. I have lately been taking advantage of the many beautiful public beaches in my town and I don't regret a single minute.

[Rivera42]

Please look here, this may be related.

EDIT:
I don't believe the Dell-provided Windows disc is bootable. I tried it on my other laptop, the one with no OS. I even went so far as to configure the BIOS to boot from CD first, before "Hard Drive #1."

No matter what I did, the computer would not, or could not, and did not, boot from, or into, this CD. At no point in the process was I able to access or use this disc. Disappointed, I returned the ThinkPad's boot sequence to its previous state.

I was using my backup copy on CD-RW which I burned from an .ISO of the original. I was under the impression that it shouldn't make a difference.

*BTW: For those who need to know, to access the BIOS setup on an IBM (NOT Lenovo) ThinkPad 600x, press and hold the F1 key before you turn the computer on, then use the on/off switch and continue holding F1 until you see the EasySetup screen. To change the boot order, click on the icon with the 1-2-3 on it. The icon is labeled Start-Up and is the fourth from the left.
I had a very hard time finding this information, and I hope that by posting it here I can spare others the aggravation of hunting for it and save them some time.

Say for the sake of argument there were a problem someday and I had to do a fresh install of Windows. How on Earth would that be possible with this next-to-useless CD?

[Rivera42]

I can no longer edit the preceding post. I wanted to add this link because it might be relevant.

[Rivera42]

Originally Posted by AcaCandy

I'd still try the upper and lower filter removal. They will be put back by the problematic software when you run it the next time anyway

In Device Manager>Properties>Details, the Device Upper Filter for the PBDS DVD+-RW DS-8W1P (which is the DVD drive we've been discussing here) is listed as "redbook" and the Device Lower Filter is listed as "imapi", while the Class Lower Filters are listed as "PxHelp20" and "Afc" with no entry for "Class Upper Filters."

Does this mean anything?

MEANWHILE...
This is all I could find online with respect to the actual issue. It's good to know I'm not the only one, but this was an old post and no real solution seems to be provided as the OP never logged back on.