General pc help

OK, I put this particular entry into another thread and then realized it may be better on it'sown thread for everyone to use and help each other.

So here goes.....


I lost my f***ing DVD ROM today. My system won't recognize them and I'm getting a message in the device area that the drivers are missing or corrupted. The only I've done was to down load the official patch for Fallout 3 from the home website. Running windows trouble shooting was a waste. Am I looking at a re-installation of the drivers from the original/backup CD's? Or is it something much worse?

Some general info would be helpful for now....

 

If you have XP or Vista (I think Vista does it) the first thing I'd try is a system restore to the last restore point where you know it worked - in this case, probably last night or yesterday morning. If that fails, you are probably looking at a driver re-install.

 

I have XP, but I haven't backed up anything. If I do a system restore, will I lose any of my game files/saves/etc?

With the driver re-install, that would just mean using the discs that came with the PC originally (back up discs, whatever) and following any on screen directions?

 

With XP you should just be able to remove the drive and either search for new hardware or restart the computer (I would restart).

To remove the DVD-Rom:

Control Panel -> System - > Hardware -> Device Manager -> DVD/CD-ROM Drives

Upon restart XP should find the drive and install the generic MS drivers for it.

If your drive is SATA, you will need either a driver disc which came w/ the drive or a driver downloaded from the manufacturer's website.

 

No, don't use the install discs. Do this:

Using the start button, navigate to All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore. Click on System Restore. Make sure the option is set to "Restore my computer to an earlier time" and click Next. Windows XP creates checkpoints automatically all the time (usually 1-2 per day) so pick the last one that you know your driver worked, and click Next. Windows will put up a confirm screen - just follow the prompts and hopefully you will be set once it does it's thing.

 

OK. Tried it your way, set it back a good few days before the problem. No dice. Still getting the driver missing/corrupted message for the DVD ROM in the device manager.

Anything else?

 

OK. Tried your way too. I set both DVD drivers to "disable" restarted the PC, re-enabled the drives and still got the same message about drivers missing/corrupted. I did notice on the advance settings an option to uninstall. Would this be what you were talking about? Uninstalling the drives via that method then reinstalling them? If I'm adding/removing devices, could that be done/reset from the add/remove option?

 

Yes, you need to uninstall the DVD drive through Device Manager. It has always worked best for me to restart the machine after uninstalling a device to fix corrupted drivers.

 

OK. Tried that. No luck. Upon restart, the DVD drivers DID appear, but I'm still getting the driver missing/corrupted message.

Anything else?



BTW, thanks to BOTH of you for ALL the help so far! I've learned quite a bit more about the PC. :thumbsup:

 

Well. thanks anyway guys. There's one or two more options.

What if I used the original DVD CD's to "restore" the drivers. Erkper advised "don't", but I'd like to know why. IIRC, I thought I saw an option to restore using the CD's, in the device manager system. Could this be a feasible option?

 

Sorry, I misunderstood you. When you said discs that came with the PC, I thought you meant the WINDOWS Install discs. My bad. :blush:

By all means, try the DVD's install disc. If that doesn't work, you could try finding the manufacturer's website and pull new drivers from there.