Hi,

I also have a another not working DVD-ROM problem. The drive used to work fine until I installed a second drive, replacing my CD-ROM burner by a DVD-RAM burner. The latter works fine. I am used to debug hardware problems but was just lazy for a couple of months. Today, I put a lot of time to test, read the forum etc. No luck. My system is a Dimension 8400/Win XP and the not working drive is the HL-DT-ST DVD-ROM GDR8163B.

No error in device manager. The drive just keeps asking to insert a disk. No type of disk works (audio, cd or dvd) but they all work fine with the DVD-RAM drive. Here is what I already did:

1. Uninstall all software (with Win add/remove programs) related to CD-DVD (Nero, InCD, PowerDVD7, Power producer; stuff I got with the DVD-RAM).
2. Tried the first simple ideas found in the forum. Uninstall both IDE controller and DVD-driver and remove all upper and lower filters keys in registry (as you see below redbook remains). Remove all errors in the registry with CCleaner three times, until there was no errors left. I noted there is still entries in the registry for the softwares I removed (whole folder of Cyberlink stuff is still there). Did not tried to erase that. An example of windows efficiency unsinstalling stuff. You don't get that on a Mac. Oups sorry for that comment. Maybe that's the best solution. Buy a Mac, put the DVD-ROM into it and it should work fine..;>). I used to do Mac support and installation a few years back... Anyway.
3. Unplug the DVD-RAM drive to keep only the not working drive.
4. Did the first four steps of this page : http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dim_cdrom&thread.id=138730
5. Reconnect the DVD-RAM to run Dell diagnostics from the utility CD (I do not have the utility partition because the main hard drive was replaced). The self test of the DVD-ROM drive passed. The seek and read tests just asked to put a disk in the drive, which I tried many times. Like in Windows, nothing is recognized.
6. Finally I even tried to remove redbook.sys from the drivers folder, reboot, Windows replaced it but the DVD-ROM is not working.

The only thing I can think of now is to try the drive in another computer. I'll try that if I can find a friend who let me open his PC.

Any other suggestion?

----------------------------------------------------
Filter Driver Load Order http://www.bustrace.com
----------------------------------------------------

Upper Device Filter: redbook
Device Object: HL-DT-ST DVD-ROM GDR8163B
Lower Filter Drivers: No Lower Filter Drivers specified for this device

Driver Name: redbook.sys
File Location: c:\windows\system32\drivers
File Description: Pilote de filtre audio Livre rouge
File Version: 5.1.2600.5512 (xpsp.080413-2108) [5.1.2600.5512]
Product Name: Système d'exploitation Microsoft® Windows®
Product Version: 5.1.2600.5512 [5.1.2600.5512]
Company Name: Microsoft Corporation