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I recently reset my computer to factory settings. Before I did that, it was experiencing blue screens of death (DPC Watchdog violation), then started having trouble booting up (complained of invalid boot drive). After I reset it, it doesn't detect the CD-ROM drive as well as a plug-and-play wifi dongle (both worked before the system restore).

Is this a sign that my laptop is suffering from a soon-to-be-critical hardware failure? After the system restore the computer is working fine, but I've had situations in the past where my computer continued to work for a while, and then discovered afterwards that a surprisingly large number of components had failed.

EDIT: Thanks for the help. I decided to not try to be clever and brought it to a repair store.

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    Is your cd-rom drive detected in BIOS? Is it possible to boot up from LiveCD? I think you simply must install all platform-specific drivers for your laptop...
    – Akina
    Nov 6, 2018 at 7:31
  • Pop in a Linux live CD and see if it works. Could just be a driver issue.
    – Andy Anderson
    Nov 6, 2018 at 17:42

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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This is not necessarily a sign of hardware failure, as it's also possible that the Reset image is missing some driver or it isn't recent enough.

First, you should open PC Settings, Update & Security, and check that the computer is fully patched.

The Microsoft article Your CD or DVD drive is not recognized by Windows or other programs counsels also these steps:

  • Check BIOS settings and chipset drivers.
    Verify the drive is activated in the BIOS and that the manufacturer of the computer has a chipset driver for your Windows version.

  • Use the Hardware and Devices troubleshooter.
    Run Control Panel > Troubleshooting > Hardware and Sound > Hardware and Devices.

  • Update or reinstall the driver.
    Search for a driver from the manufacturer. If this doesn't help, in Device Manager uninstall your device under DVD/CD-ROM drives, then reboot to install the latest Windows driver.

  • Remove and reinstall IDE/ATAPI drivers.
    In Device Manager, expand IDE/ATAPI Controllers (if you have it), uninstall all devices, then reboot.

  • Fix corrupted registry entries.
    Run regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}, select UpperFilters, on the Edit menu select Delete. Repeat for LowerFilters, then reboot.

Additional steps if your CD-ROM is not detected in BIOS

  • Re-seat the CD-ROM drive as the metal contacts, over time, may have oxidised causing the physical connector to have poor conductivity.
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  • Thanks for the answer. I opened up BIOS but didn't see anything related to the CD-ROM drive, but I'm a novice and don't know what to look for. Do you know of any examples of what it might be like (it's an ASUS laptop if it matters)? I also found the registry key, but it didn't have UpperFilters or LowerFilters already. Finally, can the fact that the computer also doesn't detect the wifi dongle imply that something is causing the computer to simultaneously miss both pieces of hardware?
    – Allure
    Nov 6, 2018 at 11:05
  • These are two different connectors: USB and CD. If there is a common hardware cause, this implies a motherboard problem. Regarding software, I think that the above list is pretty comprehensive. You might try to find on the Asus site updates to drivers, principally the chipset driver. I'm not sure that updating the BIOS on this computer is a good idea, but check how your version compares to the available one (version is shown during boot).
    – harrymc
    Nov 6, 2018 at 11:24

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