Hi
I need some help. I am new to this forum. I have a pioneer dvd-rw dvr k-14 driver in a sony viao bvgn-b1xp laptop. Up until a few days a go it was working fine, playing and recording all cds and dvds. Now it does even recognise the drive. Even if I go into WIndors Explorer, it just thinks about it for a while and then returns nothing for the F: drive to which it is mapped.I tried to uninstall the driver and let windows recognise it again on start-up but this did not work. Any advice/ assistance would be much appreciated?
I am not very technical so your patience in explaining things to me would be appreciated.
thx


Support Information:
Device Type: CD / DVD
Manufacturer: Pioneer USA
Model: pioneer dvd-rw dvr k-14
Interface: IDE
Operating System: Windows XP Home
Age of Device: < 2 years old
FCCID:

Type of drive: dvd-r/cd-rw (dvd burner, dvd reader, &amp; cd burner combo)
Location: internal
What recording software are you using?: Sonic Record Now/version

Find it on DriverGuide (http://members.driverguide.com/index.php?action=srch&sm=b&aax=&qa6=822&qa5=3&qa7=1500&dp=2&qm0=pioneer+dvd-rw+dvr+k-14&jmd=and&fzz=d) | Find it with Google (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=Pioneer+USA+CD+%2F+DVD++pioneer+dvd-rw+dvr+k-14+Windows+XP+Home+) | Research manufacturer Pioneer USA (http://members.driverguide.com/index.php?action=getinfo&companyid=822)

Simple solution:

Situation
There is a yellow exclamation mark for CD/DVD drives in Device Manager. The device status in the properties of the driver might indicate an error code, for example 32, 37, or 39.

Solution

To solve the issue, you have to edit the Windows Registry:
Click Start, then Run, type REGEDT32 and click OK.
Locate and then remove the following registry values:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlCl ***{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}LowerFilters

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlCl ***{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}UpperFilters

http://common.packardbell.com/itemnr/topic_02125/topic_02125.gif

Close Registry Editor.
Reboot the system for the changes to take effect.

Note: Some programs are unable to detect the CD/DVD drive after these steps. To solve this, simply re-install the program in question, eg: usually your recording software. Also, in few instances the order in which the programs are (re-)installed can make a difference.

And here's another method that will do this automatically for you if your afraid to edit the registry manually. Just download and unzip and run the file CdGone.zip

http://forums.driverguide.com/showthread.php?t=22131
(automatic fix, post #7, download file: CdGone.zip)

Hi
I tried running the cdgone file you supplied and it still does not recognise the drive after rebooting. Even from Windows Exporer it shows F:\ as the CD/DVD drive but not contents.

The registry continues to show the Lower and Upper values after running the program, and even deleting them manually did not do the trick

any advice
thx

btw the way I running XP Professional, not XP Home, even that makes any difference. thx

One more thing, I ran a piece of software called Spybot Search & Destroy a couple of weeks ago, which may have something to do with why the drive is not responding. It removed a number of enteries from the registry under HKEY_USERS, which it deemed as foreign. Not sure if this may have had anything to do with it.
thx

As long as there is an optical drive connected to the ide bus, there will always appear the upper and lower filters after a reboot or refresh. The purpose of deleting those registry values is to get the system to detect the drive. Is the drive visible in Device Manager and in My Computer? Why is it F:? Do you have more than one hard drive and/or more than one optical drive connected to the system?

Let's do a few simple steps first....
#1: is the drive detected? If so, it will be visable in Device Manager and My Computer... is it?
#2: will it read a data or music disk (without loading any other software like recording software or dvd decoding software)?
3: How is the problem drive jumpered and what ide port is it connected to?
4: List the total number of hard drives and optical drives installed and how they are configured.

Without this information, there's no way I can help you troubleshoot.

And yes, SpyBot S&D can remove entires that might be causing the problem (however, I use it all the time and never experienced this problem). When you ran S&D it should have prompted you to do a backup of the registry... Did you? If so you can restore that backup, however, you will be back to square one. And if you have System Restore enabled, you should have several major restore points from which you can put the system back to the restore date.

The hard drive is partioned which is c: and d: and e: is for the memory card, hence f: is and has always been my optical cd/ dvd drive. I do not have any other optical drives. I recently purchased an external harddrive, but this only appears when I connect it, so to answer your questions:

1. The drive is detected and is visible in device manager as working properly and I can see the drive as F: in windows explorer
2. Presently it reads no data, either with software or without. It simply makes a noise likes it is trying to read the drive and then returns nothing. Through windows explorer i can see the drive, but when I click on it it shows nothing. Even the properties show the media in the drive is 100% free, even if I put a music cd in the drive
3. Not sure what you mean with this question. What should I check? There is nothing obvious in device manager to answer this question
4. 1 Harddrive, partioned into c: and d: Only one optical drive which as mentioned is not responding. 1 external hard drive which i connect occasionaly via USB.

Regarding Spybot, I believe if I go into it I can recover the recent enteries it deleted, but as mentioned these all appeared to be HKEY_USERS internet registry settings. But if you believe it useful, I can recover these.
I tried system restore from 4 weeks back but that made difference.
thanks

yes, you can try one of the earlier restore points... but, before you do, open registry editor (start, run, type regedt32, click ok) and backup your current registry in case you need to get back to current settings.

Click File, Export, type in todays date, chose folder to write to, click ok.

The symptoms you describe all indicate you have a defective drive. Can you tell me if this problem started immediately after you ran Spybot S&D? And when you first ran Spybot, did you backup the registry at that time?

I did try one of the earlier restore points but it made no difference

I am not sure if it started directly after I ran Spybot, becuase I did not use the drive directly after, I only noticed it a couple of weeks after.
Unfortunately I did not back up the registry at the time I ran SpyBot

You dont think this is related to a corrupt driver then?

This problem sounded similar to one of the other users on this site BillBailiey to which I believe you had advised, do you know if his issue got resolved?

non-defective drives just don't produce that kind of problem. They either work or they don't. I suggest to replace the drive and see if your problems go away.
Laptop optical drives, in my opinion, are poorly built compared to 5.25" drives and are more prone to defects along with being more difficult to replace.

ok, sounds like i may need to get a new drive.
thanks for your help anyway

HI Jerry K
Just returned from vacation to look at my machine again. I am trying to see if I can purchase a new pioneer dvr k14 drive. I have been searching various websites without much joy. Are you able to advise where I might be able to purchase another drive which can fit into my laptop.

as a side, someone mentioned a firmware update might fix my problem. what do you think? if so, why can I get a firmware update for my drive and my machine.
thx
Pritesh

Firmware will not usually fix a non-working drive. It worked with the original firmware right? The only advise I can offer is to contact the laptop maker and see if you can get a replacement drive or even ask if they can repair your current drive. Remember that laptop drives are much different than desktop drives in they do not have the Master, Slave, or CS jumpers that a desktop drive has. That setting is done when the drive is made and cannot be changed from one type to another. There are 3 different types so you must ask or find out which configuration your current drive has, type 1, type 2, or type 3... they will not interchange.
Do not attempt to use any type of Pioneer firmware as it will render your drive more useless than it already is. The laptop maker installs propriatary code (firmware) in their drives before installing them in a laptop, hence if you upgrade firmware, it must come from the laptop maker and not from Pioneer. You will need to contact the laptop maker to inquire if an updated firmware is available. Laptop makers are very conservative on putting out any updates for their laptops free of charge..... they have you cornered and you can't do anything about it except complain (and that usually goes unheeded). Good luck.