CD-ROM Drivers Not Installing After EZ CD Creator/WinXP Conflict

[Dan]

I just added another Dell workstation (Optiplex GX260) to a small company network. OS is WinXP Pro.

I want to add an external USB 4x burner (Iomega) to the mix. Prior to plugging in the burner I installed the basic software that came with it, including EZ CD Creator 4.02. WinXP immediately disabled two of the newly installed drivers (cdralw2k.sys and cdr4_2k.sys), saying they would make the system unstable.

The problem: now both the USB CD-RW and the internal CD-ROM are inaccessible. I removed the burner from the equation and rebooted. The HL-DT-ST GCR-8481B CD-ROM is recognized but Windows can't/won't load the drivers for it.

Here's what else I've tried so far:

--> uninstalled the drivers and removed the hardware from device manager. Windows detects it but can't install the drivers.

--> tried using System Restore to roll back to an earlier date. For some reason Windows will not install any of the available system restore points.

--> extracted the relevant drivers from the WinXP cab file to Windows' system32 folder.

--> deleted the UpperFilter and LowerFilter values under the registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\ControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}.

When none of the above worked, I called Dell Tech support. Once they heard System Restore couldn't fix it their only other advice was to wipe the drive clean and do a fresh install of the OS.

I can't believe there aren't less drastic options.

 

[Dan]

bump...

 

[Vadatajs]

ezcd 4.xx is not compatible with windows XP. I've never gotten it working, even with the application compatability update. Try version 5, or nero.

 

[Dan]

Thanks for the response. I've got that part figured out. (I'll use Nero.)

In the meantime, short of a full reinstall, how do I get WinXP to load drivers for the system's internal CD-ROM?

 

[Dan]

Anyone?

 

[Dan]

???

 

[Dan]

Is everybody stumped?

 

[Mem]

You tried "update driver" by right clicking on the cd-drive in Device manager?

 

[Dan]

Thanks for the response. Yes, I've tried that. If I try to do it automatically, it tells me that the best drive is already being used. If I force it to select/install a specific driver it tells me there is a problem loading it.

 

[Mem]

Last option would be to remove the CD drive from device manager,reboot and it should detect it again and reinstall the drivers automatically.

 

[Dan]

I've done that too. WinXP detects the new hardware but cannot load the drivers.

 

[crisp82]

Assuming you've fully removed EZ CD creator from the computer network in question, are you receiving any startup messages about incompatible drivers? They usually hide themselves just to be annoying. Try RegCleaner. This is a handy program which will trawl through you're registry and remove any registry settings/keys etc that are no longer needed. Delete all un-needed ones and try to re-install the drivers for the internal CD-Rom then.

Have you removed the drivers for the CD Burner?

Alternatively, if the problem is software related, try updating to EZ CD Creator 5 (you will need a patch from here to make it XP compatible, but the software itself is very good), this should write over any settings that are causing you problems (hopefully!)

Good Luck

 

[Dan]

RegCleaner is a good idea. The workstation doesn't have Internet access but I have a copy of RegCleaner will give it a shot.

 

[crisp82]

No Problems. Let me know if it works