CDROM Missing

Does the Device status area show an error message that refers to a missing or corrupted driver, or Code 19, Code 31, Code 32, Code 39 or Code 41? If your CDROM drive was working, you could re-install the driver software from the manufacturer's CDROM. So that option is obviously not going to work too well. But if you can find the website of your CDROM vendor, try to download and install the most recent driver software for your CDROM drive. Sometimes that (and a system restart) will resolve the problem with Windows not "seeing" the drive.

The System Restore feature built in to Windows XP may also help. Windows periodically takes regular snapshots of your Windows configuration, settings, and program files. If none of those procedures revive the drive, we must put on the surgical gloves and hack the Windows registry. Here's what you need to do:

1. Click Start, then Run, then enter REGEDIT to open the Registry Editor
   
2. Navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control/Class entry
   
3. Under the Class entry, double click on {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
   
4. In the right-hand pane, click ONCE to select the UpperFilters entry
   
5. Make sure the UpperFilters entry is highlighted, press Delete, then Yes.
   
6. In the right-hand pane, click ONCE to select the LowerFilters entry
   
7. Make sure the LowerFilters entry is highlighted, press Delete, then Yes.
   
8. Close the Registry Editor by clicking File, Exit.
   

Restart your computer, and the CDROM drive should now show up on the My Computer screen. You may need to re-install your CDROM software if it's not working properly.