Tag Archives: dvd

CD/DVD has dissappeared in XP (A driver (service) for this device has been disabled. An alternate driver may be providing this functionality (code 32))

Computer Aid Posted on by

A customer needed a new CD drive, as she needed to install an office xp update, and it was asking for the original CD.

When I get there, I notice the PC is really slow (for a 2.67Ghz celeron, with 512MB RAM)

I have a quick look at task manager, and I see the system is using 460MB… quite high for an xp system.

I leave the RAM situation for the moment, and try the CD drive… but it won’t eject… looks like a faulty drive. I open up the case, and the drive has power connected, so there is no reason for it not to eject.

I install a new DVDRW, but when windows boots up, the drive is not in windows explorer.

Odd: the bios detects it ok.

While I’m looking around windows, I decide to do some quick tuning… lots of rubbish auto-starting.

I look into device manager, and i see the drive (with a yellow !). this usually means no drivers.

So I get it to automatically search for the most recent drivers, but xp finds nothing better.

Strange, as new DVDRW drives are just plug in and go… no need to look for odd drivers.

I try another (used) cd drive, but it also fails to detect. Ok, looks like a windows problem.

Customer says she recently checked everything (ran av scan, also scanned using defender, spybot, regscrub, etc). Ah: regscrub I don’t like the idea of a program automatically altering the registry (Unless I really trust it).

Anyway, I decide to look into a possible registry problem.

I look more closely at the device manager properties, and the error it gives is: A driver (service) for this device has been disabled. An alternate driver may be providing this functionality (code 32)

If only I had noticed this earlier, I wouldn’t have wasted time searching for a device driver 🙁

I soon find that the problem is related to UpperFilters and LowerFilters… now this sounds familiar…

Sure enough, I start regedit, and go to HKLM-system-currentcontrolset-control-class-{4d36e965-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318} And remove UpperFilters (the entry contained info about incd).

Apparently, I should also remove LowerFilters from the same location, but its not there.

I also disable any incd services and auto-startup programs.

Reboot, and now the DVDRW works. I install the office updates without a hitch. All is good again.

strange DVD playback problems

Computer Aid Posted on by

A previous customer, with a slow celeron 1GHz PC, rang asking about getting a newer computer. Given what he uses the computer for (dialup internet, watching DVDs, and some simple games), I tell him that he doesn’t really need a new computer, a windows reinstall is all that is needed.

He says ok, and I book a time to do the reinstall.

A short time later, he calls, saying a friend of his will sell a HP (P4, 2.2Ghz, 512MB ram, 80Gb Hdd), for $150. I say sure, thats a great price, I’ll install XP onto the new PC instead.

I swap DVD writer and CDROM drives between computers.

During the install, it turns out that XP doesn’t have the correct drivers for video, sound, and the ethernet port. Downloading the correct drivers could take a very long time over dialup, so I take the PC to the office.

The video and sound drivers are easy to find and install (via Miscosoft update), but the ethernet port takes a bit of time… I eventually find a website that has the correct driver, and I install it.

Everything seems to work well, but I remember his previous PC had some problems with DVD playback (probably due to some windows corruption, or CODEC problems… the playback was very slow, with many skipped frames… displaying about 1 frame every second or two).

So I try playing a dvd, and I get an error using windows media player (I think it was error C00D116A). The error indicated that the DVD is set for the wrong dvd region, or that the appropriate DVD decoder isn’t installed.

Since I installed Nero, then I should have the correct decoding software. And I doubt my customer would know how to change the dvd region.

I search the internet, but I find no solution. I’m sure this has to work.

I try windows media player, jetaudio, the nero dvd player, but they all refuse to work.

Someone in a forum mentioned using Media Player Classic. Given I’ve tried everything I can think of, I install it… and it works!

I can’t understand why only MPC works, where 3 other mainstream player refuse to work, but hey, it works, and I don’t have the time to wonder why.

When I deliver the PC to the customer, I explain the peculiarity with playing DVDs, setup his internet connection, and I’m on my way.