My computer does recognize my DVD and CD Rom Drives

[Kevinator]

I was removing some old software off my computer and running Crap Cleaner then I Defraged it. When I went to reboot and start up a game with a game disk it told me to load disk but I had the disk in it. I thought maybe it was a bad driver but that was not it. I can open both of them. I can't figure out what is going on. Can anyone help????

[Nakor]

Open the start menu, and right-click on My Computer. Click Properties. Go to the Hardware tab, and then click Device Manager. Look for the "DVD/CD-ROM Drives" section, and click the [+] next to it. If your drive isn't listed there at all, you'll need to go to the web site of its manufacturer, find and install the appropriate driver. If it is there, but has a ? or X on it, try right clicking on it and choose "Update Driver..." to see if it can pick up the driver automatically. If not, you may want to try uninstalling the driver completely, then (still in Device Manager) right click the top listed thing (it should be your PC's name) and click "Scan for hardware changes" - this should automatically reinstall any removed drivers (rebooting works too). If all that fails, then we go back to downloading the driver from the manufacturer's web site.

If, however, the CD/DVD-ROM drive is listed there with no apparent problems it may be something other than a driver issue. Did you by any chance test other discs by the way?

[Masamune]

SecuROM! Check for it.

http://reclaimyourgame.com/index.php?op ... 2&Itemid=6

[TStodden]

Sometimes the issue lies in the registry... I have a couple of old board games (Sorry & Monopoly) that tend to cause a potential bug in the registry that gets caught with CCleaner & another dedicated Registry Cleaner. When that registry entry is removed, the game (or the CD) thinks it's not installed.

Additionally, some games have strict CD residency. If try sticking a CD-ROM in my F drive (external CD burner) instead of my E drive (DVD-ROM), the game refuses to acknowledge that the disc is in the computer... so check that as well.

Finally, make sure you place the discs face up in your optical drive! My aunt accidentally placed a disc face down in her computer (today in fact) & the computer completely forgot the drive! We had to reboot the computer just to get the disc out. However, I think the reason behind the problem was that the face side of the disc was also reflective.

If that fails... then you might want to see professional assistance.

[Kevinator]

I did what Nakor suggested and it worked like a charm!

[Nakor]

Good to hear!