Missing BD-ROM drive

Hi Guys,
I recently had this problem whereby the Blu Ray drive would randomly disappear from the explorer.
Once in a while it would reappear after a reboot although this time it no longer comes back.
Upgraded to Windows 8.1 earlier on in mid Jan & everything was still working fine until recently.
Popping in a disc,I can hear it spinning,apparently doing its thing reading the disc,but nothing else shows up in the windows explorer after that.
Going into device manager,it was indicated as "hidden" & opening the device details,it tells me that I did not connect it.(see screenshot)
Windows update was turned off & I did not install any programs prior to this issue,malwarebytes shows system as clean,uninstalling & scan for hardware changes do not help too.
I have tried countless times reseating the device & doing power drain but to no avail.BIOS also no longer detects it.
I did check online for solutions & tried them all,registry hacks & microsoft help forums,nothing works.
So I was wondering if anyone here also encountered this problem & if this issue is isolated to Win 8./8.1
I mean,if the device is really not connected at all,why would it show up as hidden? & if it is defective,it won't make the disc reading sounds & I wouldn't be able to eject it as well.
Any help would be deeply appreciated & sorry for the wall of text.

 

Device Manager will show devices that have drivers loaded but are not connected as hidden. It sounds like the device is getting power (hence the spinning sound) however it isn't communicating with the system so the drive itself probably just needs replaced. If you go into the UEFI firmware does the drive show up there? If it is the same as my laptop it should be listed on the line for ODD at the first screen.

 

The UEFI menu does not detect my optical drive now,SATA ODD indicates empty.
I am a bit skeptical about replacing the drive as I have heard some users receiving refurbished drives which was already region locked.
Kinda hoping its Win 8.1 problem instead of hardware issue
Maybe I will wait for the next round of major Win 8.1 update,see if the issue can be resolved before calling Dell.
Thanks shinji257 for the advice!:hi2:

 

Unfortunately if it is not showing in the UEFI then you can probably safely eliminate an OS issue as that won't be a factor at that point. As far as the region lock bit goes if they only use one then you can still change it and it will only apply to DVD regions anyways. BD regions are purely software enforced. If for some reason it was used 5 times and needs changed have them exchange it for another one.

 

Try reseating the drive.

 

I did reseat the drive several times,including the usual power drain & stuff,nothing works.
Anyway,have scheduled for parts exchange with Dell technicians although they told me the BluRay drive is currently out of stock,have to wait until next week.

 

Mate, try deleting upper and lower filter from regedit. Since I can see you have the drive in your device manager, but it would not show up in the computer, this is a common issue with many laptops.

press Windows+R, type in regedit, hit enter, the go to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

Delete only upper and lower filters, do not touch anything else (detele the whole key, no just the value 'GEARAspiWDM' inside the key. Then close the registry editor and restart your computer.
please see the screenshot for your reference below



Source MS:
GEARAspiWDM
Your CD or DVD drive is not recognized by Windows or other programs

 

That won't work. The entry is greyed out which means that it is a device that has a driver loaded but it isn't present. If you have device manager show hidden devices you will see a ton of entries that show up like that. It clearly says that the device isn't connected. Earlier I had him check to see if it showed up as an ODD entry in the firmware and it does not (the entry is blank) which means that it isn't an OS issue. The drive just isn't being detected anymore. The cable is connected because there is power present to it. At this point he already has a replacement incoming so that should take care of his issue once that happens.

 

Yep,Mariussx,I did tried the regedit,only that there was no upper or lower filter in the registry.
Also read through & tried every solution in the microsoft link before posting.
Up until now the SATA ODD for the optical drive remains empty from the UEFI BIOS...
Now just gotta hope they can replace the drive in time before the release of Diablo: ROS.

Thanks everyone for the help. +Rep to all

 

Got some good news there. If you already have Diablo 3 then chances are you already have the applicable files. Even if you don't then you can always download it via the website installer so no drive needed.

 

I do have Diablo 3,in fact,I'm playing it now after a long hiatus.
Version 2.01 really feels like a new game
I know the installer can be downloaded,although I intend to keep a hard copy.
The Blu Ray drive are for the movies.

 

Yea that's how it is for me. I took it out though to make more room for another drive.

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