CD-RW/DVD combo drive not found(???)

[JustTed]

Gah! I need help (again)...

For some odd reason, XP Pro won't recognize my CD drive. Well, it said that it -did- load the drivers for the drive, but gave this message in the Device Manager: "Windows has loaded the drivers for this device but was unable to locate the device" or something... The drive is right there, plugged in like usual...

Tried uninstalling then reinstalling it, then XP gave this new error message: "Windows cannot start this hardware device because its configuration information (in the registry) is incomplete or damaged. (Code 19)" What the heck? I didn't even fiddle with the Registry at all (well, not since last week). Oh, and this problem started yesterday evening, by the way.

Suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

[waitman]

What did you do in the registry, also have you uninstalled any software lately?

 

[JustTed]

You know how some programs left empty entries in the registry when they're uninstalled? Well, I was getting rid of those. Done that plenty of times, it's never been a problem before.

As for your 2nd question, yes, as a matter of fact I did uninstall softwares lately, but they're mainly games. Well, they're -all- games, and they are from reputable companies too (Blizzard, Sierra, etc, etc), so I don't think they'd do anything to mess with my registry, unlike games from the more "shady" companies. And same as above, installing/unintalling games never posed any problems before.

By the way, now the only error message displayed is just the Code 19 error (info in registry is incomplete/damaged).

How do I fix the entries for the CD drive in the registry?
And where is it located? Tried searching in all categories, no result.

I read something about downloading a device driver from Microsoft... Would this help fixing this problem? Anyone can tell me what the URL is?

Thanks a bunch.