My mult-drive isn't recognized in Windows 7 or BIOS, urgent assistance appreciated.

I reformatted my ASUS G50VT-A1 laptop today, and put Windows 7 ultimate on there.
In my enthusiasm, I forgot to update my ODD firmwire, which I didn't think was required.

So I install Win 7, everything works fine, except now my DVD/CD drive isn't recognized by windows, or the BIOS.
The device manager doesn't even have a DVD/CD-ROM drives tab anymore.

After trying my own tricks and googling for a few hours I came across the solution which involves editing the registry and deleting the key which controls the ODD devices, but that didn't work either, and it won't give me permission to completely delete the key.
Hypothetically you're supposed to delete the key, restart the computer, and then it will automatically re-install the ODD device, but on my laptop it doesn't do anything, the key value stays where it is and it doesnt' update any of the subfolders despite me deleting them.

So finally, even though I hate do it since I build my own computers and am usually proficient in solving their problems, I call ASUS tech support, and as usual they've got uninformed people sitting in front of screens reading solution formulas without knowing what they're doing.
I had to explain 3 times to this girl that I couldn't check on the drives status in device manager, because it didn't exist.
After placing me on hold for 10 minutes she comes back with the regedit solution which I've already tried on my own.
She then told me to update the bios, but the latest version on the ASUS website is 213, and my system reports that I have 215 (?)

Finally she just tells me to send it in, which is ridiculous, considering the fact that I just got it back TODAY after they had to replace a faulty hard drive.....I JUST got the damn thing back after 4 weeks and I'm not sending it out again. The notion of having to send it in for this is ridiculous, I asked the girl what the technicians could be doing that I can't, and she had no clue.
It's like, if they don't know how to solve an issue, just tell the customer to send it in.....ugh

There has got to be some way to fix this, and someone on the internet must know how.
If I knew exactly what drive was inside the laptop, I could try to track down the manufacturer and get a firmware update that way, but no matter how many specification sheets for the G50 I look at, all it tells me is DVD super multi drive.


I've been dealing with this for over 3 hours now, and it's really starting to me off.
For additional information there are two yellow exclamation marks in my device manager, they're both called "Base System Device", and when I try to update their drivers it tells me Windows cannot find suitable drivers for the devices.
I'm fairly certain one of those is my ODD device, but I'm not sure.
The only clue offered if you click on them, is their location, one is in: PCI bus 7, device 1, function 3
The other: PCI bus 7, device 1, function 2

Is there someone out there who can bring sanity to this madness?
This is incredibly frustrating since I was supposed to be up and running on 7 by now.

 

Typically laptops drives are OEM and do not get a lot of firmware updates. You could try a Linux Live CD to see if it's a software issue. If the drive shows up in Linux, there's a software issue somewhere with Windows 7, but if it's not showing up in the BIOS, that more likely points to a hardware. You could re-seat the drive to ensure it's making proper contact, but manufacturers tend to not look kindly on the opening your case in terms of the warranty. Good Luck.

 

Try Unknown Device Identifier 7.00 to see if it can lead you to the proper driver. http://www.zhangduo.com/udi.html

Also try unplugging the AC adapter, remove the battery, then press and hold the power button down for a minimum of 30 seconds. Now replace the battery and plug the AC back in to see if the DVD drive shows up. I see this happen quite often on Toshiba laptops and this has been known to correct it.