Virtual Driver Conflict

In short, I would change the region on a desktop machine and leave the laptop alone. Since you can only change it a few times and then the drive gets replaced, this solution is workable.

If you found a bug/limitation with THEIR drivers, then you need to make it a WARRANTY ISSUE and if they don't fix it, ask for a full refund.

Best of luck,

Bob

I appreciate the attempt, Bob, unfortunately, the problem is no longer the region, the problem lies in how Window's recognizes the DVD-R/RW drive and any other similar drives, including my cd-rom drive. I suppose I should've specified that before, but to clarify, the problem is with the virtual driver (.vxd) and my computer's complete lack of ability to recognize one. The external drive is capable of exporting data to cds, but completely incapable of recognizing any data on any disc. The virtual driver is replaced, I've already tried removing both the external and internal drives, i've uninstalled the driver package for the external drive and reinstalled it, all to no avail. I've asked the more experienced of my friends and they were just as stumped as I am. I would've gladly reinstalled windows 98 or upgraded to XP to attempt correcting the problem, but once again, the "removable drives" (what windows is now recognizing both my dvd-rw and my cd-rom drive as) don't recognize any information on any disc. Oh, and the manufacturer of the dvdrom doesn't have an online contact, they have 800 numbers, but i'm currently in spain. . .and 800 numbers are FAR from free. If you have any other ideas, i'd be glad to hear 'em.

It appears it worked, then you broke it by removing drivers or other. All I can offer is that you rip out all the items and install it from scratch.


If the product doesn't work, then pack it up and return it.

Bob

i've ripped out all the products and re-installed them and it's no longer a matter of wether or not to keep the external drive, now it's trying to get windows to recognize my cdrom drive as well and i can't return that. you've no idea even how to reinstate the former virtual drive?

CDROM drives have no user installable drivers. Windows does that without any added drivers save one. The motherboard drivers.

As to me knowing your addon product, such is true. Backpack products tend to just work. Your diddling with the works seems to be the issue and you may need to retrace your steps or even wipe the drive and restore from your last backup.

Hopefully something simple like an IDE controller driver will fix your issue. Take a look at the Device Manger for clues as well.

Microsoft doesn't offer "drivers."

Bob

i've already admitted my mistake, though i really don't want to go through the trouble of erasing everything and starting from scratch when i KNOW there's still a drive. . .especially since my looking into the device manager has already shown me that the computer recognizes both devices for what they are. . .the problem isn't there, it's in the display when i open 'my computer' or when an autorun.inf is accessed. . .'my computer' displays both as removable drives and autoruns just open the drive, displaying empty disk space that isn't really empty at all. . .

do you feel installing XP would help? if so, do you think that accessing the installation cd from a networked computer's cd-rom drive would allow me to install it on my laptop?

You are in uncharted waters here and it doesn't matter how you got there. If this was my machine I'd boot to safe mode and remove all the CDROMs in the Device Manager. Reboot and let them redetect.

You didn't respond to my hint about motherboard or IDE drivers. Even XP will not do this for you. In fact, this area wipes out too many users as Windows of all versions do not fetch or install drivers for us. The owners and maintainers must do such things.

Bob

I'll look into it a bit deeper, though i don't know how either of the hints will aid me. . .it SEEMS as though the main problem is that i can't seem to get around the fact that everything is operating save the .vxd. . .i've discovered i can even rip music from cd through either drive, which means i could probably use almost any ripping program to get the information from a cd, but it still doesn't allow me to access it directly. . .i already did remove them from my device manager, is Safe Mode supposed to grant anything special to this process? and i only assumed the driver database in XP would grant me greater liberty in repairing the vxd. Thanks, I'll check a couple of those out, if you have any other ideas, let me know.

James

Since we are dealing with just the CDROM, the use of SFC would be used to fix minor 98 issues. But its clear to me that some odd OS damage (self inflicted) has offlined your CDROM. Sadly this repair is not documented and is dependant on what the user did to the OS.

Bob