Lenovo DVD Drive Disabled After Windows 7 Install

Question

Upgraded hard drive in Lenovo T61P; decided to start fresh with Windows 7 Pro. Windows installed, so DVD drive was working. All of a sudden, driver is not recognized. Device is "HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-U10N ATA Device". It appears on device manager but with the yellow tag; have tried uninstalling, searching for drivers, everything I can think of. Cannot even start over with Windows 7 installation disk because disk spins but then stops and My Computer does not recognize the drive.

Help please. thank you. David Lacher

Answer 1

You might want to give these steps a try:

Steps for installing Windows 7 drivers for optical drives:

Step 1: Click Start button, type services in the Start Search box, and then select Services in the Programs list.

Step 2: If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password or click Continue.

Step 3: Under Name, locate the Windows Driver Foundation - User-mode Driver Framework service. Verify that the Startup type is set to Automatic. Additionally, verify that the Service status is set to Started.

Tips: If the Startup type is not set to Automatic, right-click Windows Driver Foundation - User-mode Driver Framework, and then click Properties. In the Startup type box, click Automatic , and then click OK.

Once you finished all the steps above mentioned, you will be able to install Windows 7 drivers for optical drives. This guide just tell you a way on how to make Windows 7 drivers available for optical drives. Windows 7 is released officially not long ago. If you need some Windows 7 drivers, you can go to the site of Windows 7 Drivers to get you drivers.

Answer 2

Have you tried the Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter? You could also try to pull the driver from Lenovo's Downloads and Drivers or try pulling the Windows 7 compatible driver from Lenovo's Windows 7 site:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/WIN7-BETA.html

Answer 3

Here is a site that has quite a bit of dicussion on the problem and many possible solutions.

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/windowscompatibility/thread/cbbfde77-4def-4abb-8dd0-125c6eb9441d

Answer 4

Do you have the latest version of Lenovo System Update? It might be able to scan your laptop and install the drivers you need.

Answer 5

Try the troubleshooter built into Windows 7

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/Open-the-playing-and-burning-cds-dvds-and-bluray-discs-troubleshooter

Answer 6

I suggest you see what mode your drive controller is in bios, verify the driver in windows matches and is up to date. I have seen where the mass storage/optical drives are not recognised because the controller drivers are wrong/out of date. once updated with the proper version/type uninstalling the cdrom and reinstalling allows it to properly determine.

I have also seen where the windows install broke and your only option is to reinstall windows again.

If the first option did not help you can try booting off of a bootable cd to verify that the drive is working properly. if it is then you can try removing the driver for the cdrom from the driver store. MS Technet article describes how to do so. I normally have to use this kind of procedure for usb hubs/devices when windows confuses the drivers there.