Reversion problems

[ULC]

I just recently reverted back to XP from Vista, and now I can't use my DVD+RW drive at all. It doesn't even acknowledge that I put a DVD in, neither prompting with autoplay, or when I access it through My computer, it asks for me to insert a CD or treats it as a blank disc that somehow has no space on it . It's a AD-7173A if that helps, and CDs still work.

[FactionHeir]

Tried installing XP/compatible/newest drivers for it? I believe you can force install a same install version onto a DVD drive too (note that even if you format your hard drives, the DVD drive keeps its last installed update version).

[ULC]

Well, it seems I am one fo those poor souls who bought the wrong computer. I had to go here to get the proper drivers, but even now I seem to be having a problem downloading the chipset driver.

I don't know how to do the force install, All I can find is firmware for it, and it only flashes the DVD +/- RW drive.

[Whacker]

When you say reversion, does that mean you did a simple reinstall of XP over Vista? Or perhaps did you do a full system wipe/reformat before reinstalling? It really seems like you may have done the first option, which is not necessarily a good idea. If you can, you might try backing up all your important data (docs, bookmarks, email, savegames, etcetc), reformatting your HDD, and then installing XP clean that way. I'm also going to assume that this is a machine you've had XP fully working on before, so drivers shouldn't be an issue for you.

[ULC]

Nope, I did a clean install, and had backed up everything important on my secondary drive before wiping everything clean and installing XP. As for drivers, it's a yes no thing. I had XP running fine before, but I installed the DVD drive when Vista was the OS, and now I can't get the chipset drivers from Acer :(.

[Whacker]

Hrmmm, sounds fishy, I know of no optical drives that require special drivers. What is your system make/model and specs?

[ULC]

Gateway GT 5656
Dual Core AMD 3.0ghz processor
3GB memory
Optiarc DVD RW AD-7371A

I don't know what else you need to know though.

[Whacker]

Hmmm, I'm at a bit of a loss here. It could be that your DVD drive is going bad. When you go to Settings/Control Panel/System, Hardware Tab, then Device Manager button, does it show you as having any yellow question marks? If so what are they listed as?

[ULC]

None, It shows that the Optiarc has drivers installed and is functioning properly, but it lists it as a DVD/CD-ROM drives, and the manufacturer as "(Standard CD-ROM drives)", with a Location of 0(0). I checked the drivers, and it only has cdrom.sys, imapi.sys, redbook.sys, and storprop.dll. If I attempt to roll back the drivers, it says the drivers are not backed up, but it won;t let me proceed either. If I try to update, it says It can't find any better software, the driver version being provided my Microsoft...arrrggg...

[Whacker]

A bit of searching turned up this: http://forums.driverguide.com/showthread.php?t=25459

It's not the exact same model as your driver and not the same problem, but at your discretion you could give it a shot. Please don't blame me if it hoses up your system.

Other than that, I don't know what else to tell you. If you're technically inclined or know someone who is, you could always spend $20 on Newegg and get a nice new burner shipped...

[ULC]

Desperate times call for desperate measures..and I thought that's what a recovery drive was for .

[Whacker]

/shrug

Go nuts I say, esp. if you don't have any data to lose. You can always reinstall. Hopefully you get this working soon, maybe someone else can chip in.

At this point I have clearly failed in my duties to our Lord Prosimian and shall be committing Seppuku shortly. May his reign be long and glorious.

[ULC]

Not yet please! Well, the above solution didn't work, and I just had a rather weird experience. I decided to open it up and add another drive to see if it was the original drives fault. To test it, I left the other one plugged in. Lo and behold as it froze every time it tried to load. I could only manage safe mode, so I decided to remove the older drive, and viola, it loads. Sadly, the newer drive doersn;t even handle CD's...grrr....the only thing that works is my burned vista recovery DVD...yeah, and no other disk works...

[Whacker]

Sounds like you nailed it then. If you replaced the original problem drive with an older one that's working fine, sounds like your original has or is in the middle of going bad. Just use your older driver or snag a nice 20$ bargain off of Newegg.

[ULC]

Nope, neither drive is working , yet the new one will read the Vista recovery disk with no problem but won;t touch anything else...

[Whacker]

Oops, ok then. I apparently misunderstood, and I just saw your edits. So how did you go about reinstalling XP? Did you install from scratch using a retail XP copy, or did you have some kind of prebuilt OS image courtesy of Gateway that you seem to mention? Also, is this thing still under warranty?