I have a Dell Inspiron 570 Desktop, with a built-in DVD/CD-ROM. I went to use it yesterday, and after I put the CD in and closed the tray, nothing happened. I noticed the desktop icon for the D: drive is absent from the desktop screen. When I checked Device Manager, I found that ‘Windows cannot start this hardware because its configuration is incomplete in the registry.’ What can I do about this?
Have you added any hardware or software lately? When what the last time that it worked? If you know when, you might try system restore back to a time when you knew that it worked properly.
As in all things electronic, things work better when plugged it! You might want to jiggle the connectors to see if anything is loose.
I have not added any new hardware for more than a year.
According to the Programs list under the Control Panel heading, I have added the following software since April 19 of this year:
McAfee Anti-Virus (most recent; came with Time Warner Cable)
Advanced PC Care
Adobe Flash Player 18 ActiveX
Radio Rage IE Toolbar
MapsGalaxy IE Toolbar
Skype 7.5
Slim Cleaner Plus
iMesh (music)
Google Chrome
Norton Utilities (added with a CD, on April 19)
Reboot! ha ha ha
Okay, seriously check connections.
Reinstall driver software.
Borrow/buy another drive to check if drive or MB hardware problem.
I’d suspect software as problem - something got corrupted in registry.
Well, the D: drive is built-in so I don’t know where any connections would be.
How do I “reinstall software”?
I can’t afford another drive.
And how do I gain access to registry?
It could just be old and worn out. This is most likely the case if it you had issues that got progressively worse, in this case the most common is when you put in a disk and it says it cannot detect the disk.
Also, it sounds very old. The last CD rom I’ve seen on a stock computer was something like 20 years ago. I have one because it kept getting grandfathered into my newer builds, but it’s a CD-RW.
There’s also tons of ways around this now, here’s a few examples:
- You can rip a CD using itunes or any MP3 player program, put it on a thumb drive, put it into your computer.
- Any DVD player plays CD’s.
- Most game consoles can play CD’s. (note that for 2 and 3, they also do slideshows of pictures.)
- If all you want is data, you can just email the files you need from a working computer to yourself.
Also, what error message do you get when you try to play a CD? It is also very possible that you accidentally put a DVD into a CD drive.
I had something similar happen to my Dell Desktop about a year ago. I don’t remember if it showed up a a drive or not, or what the error message was but the DVD drive was not reading the disks. I found the driver online and reinstalled it and since then it has worked with no problems.
I’m pretty sure CD drives, particularly CD roms, don’t need drivers. They use the same connector and plug into the same place as the old 3.5-5.25" floppies, and none of them needed a driver up to like windows '98. The drivers started coming after the 28 pin connectors were being phased out.
In the OP’s case though, if it’s a laptop, it might be different.
Missed window: I recently went shopping for an external Blu Ray drive, and here’s some rough estimates of prices:
USB DVD RW (needs external power source): $40
USB External DVD RW (Powered by USB): $50
USB External Blu Ray/DVD RW: $80
Note that Blue ray can play all DVD and CD
DVD can play all CD
CD can only play CD
Weird thing to note is that I bought a blue ray player and it would only accept one type of RW disk of any type.
My computer is an Inspiron 570 that I bought new, only a few years ago, at Staples.
I don’t have a DVD player (separate) or any kind of game player.
I get no error message–the disk rotates, but nothing else happens.
You might want to ask them if you were mistakenly given a CD Rom by mistake. While the computer might be new that CD rom probably isn’t. Yeah that’s really messed up, you can’t have a CD drive. Programs like Windows and Office today come on DVD’s.
You can try this:
- Go to Device Manager
- Click on left arrow to show drives under “CD/DVD drives”
- Does your drive appear?
- Yes: Right click on it to update driver or use Troubleshooter to do it for you.
- No: Use Device Manager->Install Hardware to see if your computer can detect the drive.
If your computer cannot detect the drive, you might need to physically open it up and check the connections, or the drive is likely broken. The computer must detect the drive to update drivers.
Unplug computer.
Open up the case and check the two cables leading into the DVD player. There will be a power connector and data connector. Disconnect and reconnect; close case; power up and try again. Google your computer name for owners manuals, forums, upgrading, and drivers.
There will be a cable from the drive to the motherboard, just move the cable to a new socket on the motherboard.
Otherwise, you really do need to fix “incomplete in the registry” and not the hardware.
How ? see
Modern motherboards only have one 28 pin connector, there is no other place to plug it in.
What 28pin connector are you talking about?
The old ones used to have 40pins, like this one
Modern mainboards usually don’t have any of these sockets anymore - only SATA
There are only 2 options, either the optical drive is faulty and you need a new one or a software corrupted the registry or driver library.
It’s very rare when the SATA cable is faulty, but it can happen
HARDWARE
To check for hardware fault, go into your BIOS and check if the optical drive is present there, if it is you can try a bootable CD/DVD (your Windows CD that came with the PC) and try to boot (start) your computer with it, if it boots the drive is fine and you have a software issue.
Just make sure you do NOT reinstall windows. Alternatively you can download a boot CD HERE burn it and try to bot your PC with it - you obviously need another computer to create that CD for you.
To access your optical drive (CD/DVD) you need to open the computer case in order to gain access.
Then you should be able to see this IMAGE
If the picture is correct you’ll have a CD/DVD drive with a SATA connection.
To remove it, you just have to open the 2 screws indicated in the red box named (5,25" External Drive Bay), disconnect the cables and pull the drive out.
Replace it with a new SATA drive.
Software
Troubleshooting Method #1: Reinstall the DVD (or CD-ROM) Drive
If you are getting the above mentioned errors then you need to uninstall the device (DVD) and reinstall again. Follow these steps to uninstall the DVD drive:
-Click “Start”.
-In the “Start Search” box, type “Device Manager” and press Enter.
-In the Device Manager window that is displayed, locate the DVD/CD-ROM drives and click on “+” sign to expand it.
-Right-click on the DVD drive and select “uninstall“.
-Restart your computer.
-On restart, Windows should automatically detect and reinstall DVD driver.
-Once the driver installation is complete, check your DVD drive to see if it works now.
If the DVD drive is still not recognized after reinstalling, one of the reasons for the DVD drive not being recognized may be corrupted registry entries.
Troubleshooting Method #2: Delete Corrupt Registry Entries
Let’s take a look at the steps to get rid of corrupted registry entries that may be the reason for DVD drive errors.
-Click “Start” and then select “Run”.
-Type “regedit” and press Enter to open the Registry Editor window.
-You may be prompted to enter Administrator password. Enter the password and click Allow.
-The registry window will be displayed now. Here locate the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE in the left navigation pane.
-Click on the “+” sign to expand the registry key or right click on the registry key and click on Expand.
-Navigate to following sub registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}.
-Once you reach the above mentioned sub registry key you will be able to see Upper Filters registry entry in the right pane.
Note: You will also find an UpperFilters.bak registry entry. You are not required to remove it. If you do not see UpperFilters registry entry, you still have to remove the LowerFilters registry entry.
-Right-click on the Upper Filters registry entry and select Delete.
-In the same way delete the Lower Filters registry entry.
-You will be prompted for confirmation for deletion. Click on Yes.
-Exit the Registry editor.
-Restart your computer.
Troubleshooting Method #3 – Disable Integrity Checks
-Go to “Start > All programs > Accessories“
-Right click on “Command Prompt > Run as administrator“
-Type “bcdedit /set loadoptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS” and press “Enter“.
-Restart your computer.
If your DVD drive is still not recognized after following the troubleshooting methods above, you can try to download and install a hotfix released by Microsoft. For this, you need to go to Microsoft support site and search for hotfix “976187“. The hotfix can help fix some DVD drives issues.
One last point: Some users have reported that certain DVD drive software like WinDVD (for watching movies) have been the cause and after unistalling the software or upgrading to the newest version, their DVD-ROM drive was then recognized in Windows.
Thanks to Doughbag and others. I’ll do what I can. ( I’m still leery about opening the tower.) 
Thanks again to Doughbag–and very likely others.
Your software remedy #2 apparently did it. My CD player (all right, DVD/CD player) is up and running! You can bet I’ll keep your suggestions–which I printed out–at hand.
What a delight!
You’re welcome! Glad, it worked out for you.