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I have tried to install Need for Speed Most Wanted (the first one) or Need for Speed Underground 2 or GTA Vice City from CD/DVD on my Windows 10. However, when I close the DVD tray, I get this:

enter image description here

Insert disk

Insert a disk into drive E:.

Help for decisions in the selection of disks.

When I click on that link there, I get a really generic Microsoft page:

enter image description here

I don't get the point of this. Why does it eject those DVDs? Just two days ago I wrote an ISO image onto a DVD+RW using this machine.

How can I get the DVD drive usable again?

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  • Any chance of convincing you to change the accepted answer on this? There appears to be a simple and common solution to this particular issue.
    – Darinth
    Feb 23, 2020 at 7:49
  • Worth noting for posterity that this question and ✅answer also apply in Windows 11.
    – Theodore
    Dec 13, 2022 at 14:52

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
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I had the same problem, it appeared to be caused by the "autoplay" feature of windows.

Go to: Settings > Devices > AutoPlay > Removable drive This was set to Open folder to view files, I changed it to No action and now my CD's stay in the tray.

Found the solution thanks to this blog post

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  • 6
    This solved the issue for me, thanks! I think this should be updated to the correct answer. Based on Google, it seems this problem is quite frequent, and in my opinion this is the more likely cause, rather than a damaged drive or CD/DVD.
    – jacderida
    Aug 10, 2018 at 10:59
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    This was also the solution to myself. I even remember having set this setting as the default a few months back, not realizing that it would result in windows ejecting any disc that didn't have files.
    – Darinth
    Feb 23, 2020 at 7:37
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    Thanks so much for this. I was attempting to rip some of my audio CDs with EAC (Exact Audio Copy), but Windows 10 would continually claim there was no CD in the drive even after EAC had detected the disk and looked up the song names. Killing the autoplay feature prevents explorer from opening and ejecting the drive.
    – Ryan
    Nov 21, 2020 at 15:59
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    Setting the "Removable drive" option to "Take no action" didn't solve this for me, but switching "Use AutoPlay for all media and devices" to "Off" did.
    – Carson63000
    Feb 28, 2021 at 2:15
  • @Carson63000 You should write that up as a separate answer.
    – Canned Man
    Apr 29, 2022 at 7:43
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The problem seems to be that the device is not able to read correctly the disk (if it is not a issue with the registry keys as suggested by another answer).

The possible tests/solutions are:

  1. Check if the disks are damaged searching for scratches or smudges on the data surface(s). You can see them better with a light searching for its reflection.
  2. Check if the disk is not clean: fingerprints, dirt, dust. In case clean with a soft anti-static cloth.

  3. In presence of humidity in the air associated with a net difference of temperature DVD/computer inside, it's possible that some condensation effect makes opaque the DVD and difficult to read for the reader.
    In this case you can try deeply breathe on it (with a little intimate prayer to the soul of your computer) and clean with an anti-static cloth. This helped many times with the old CD supports and readers.

    If stored at a very low temperature relative to the user environment, the disc should be gradually acclimated to the environment in which it will be used to reduce stress and moisture condensation. [1]

  4. Check if the reader is still working with other CD/DVD. Unfortunately when a device decides to break it is not always helpful to know that it worked before flawlessly.

  5. The same condensation effect can be on the lense of the reader. You can hope that it will disappear with time. You can leave open the disk tray and wait enough.
  6. If the device did not work with any CD/DVD, try to remove completely the drivers and reinstall it.
  7. Search for updated drivers (but if it worked one week ago it should not be your case).

ps> Check if you made any update in the system between the last time you know for sure it worked and the first time you know for sure it didn't any more.

ps2> Before to go to buy another reader, try to start with a clean new (maybe different) system and check if the problem remains. You can try to boot from a Linux pen drive, or from one of the systems specific for the hardware checking. If the problem disappears it means that you have to search in the current system/settings.

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  • I got a Linux installed on the machine, it works fine there. Interestingly, after a reboot of Windows 10, it works there just fine. So I think something like condensation or a random glitch is really the cause.
    – Martin Ueding
    Aug 6, 2016 at 19:25
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I once had this problems with my Windows 8. Delete filter driver and reinstall driver did the trick.

  • To delete filter driver :

  1. Click "Start", in the Start Search box type "regedit" and press Enter.

  2. Navigate to the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

  3. Right click on "Class", click "Export"; please name the file as "RegBackup" (without quotation marks) and then save it to the C:\ drive as a backup.

Note: In case we need to undo the modification, we can double click this RegBackup.reg file to restore the registry key.

  1. Highlight this key, on the right pane, check if the "Upperfilters" and "Lowerfilters" values are present. If so, please right click on the values and select "Delete" to remove them.

After deleting filter drivers, please reload the drivers.

  • Reinstall driver

  1. Click "Start", in the Start Search box type "devmgmt.msc" and press "Enter".

    1. Expand "DVD/CDROM Drives".

    2. Right click the listed DVD/CD-ROM, and click "Uninstall". Please uninstall all devices.

    3. Restart the computer.

The drivers will be loaded automatically.

Caution : That will modify your registry, so, it would be good if you're making registry backup first whenever you're gonna edit the registry.

Source I used to fixed my problem are from here.

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Either your DVD drive has hardware issue or lens which reads the disc has become weak

Solution would be replace the drive, some of the discs still might work if completely cleaned.

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  • Don't be so drastic :-). Maybe you are right, but considering that in some parts of the world it is summer... it can even be only tarnished or some moisture condensation...
    – Hastur
    Jul 30, 2016 at 19:26
  • Also, drives are repairable; at least in some parts of the world, it even makes economic sense to pay for it to be repaired.
    – Canned Man
    Apr 29, 2022 at 7:37

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