The CD-RW/DVD drive on my Windows XP has stopped working and displays the message “Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Code 39). Click Troubleshoot to start the troubleshooter for this device”. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the device within the Device Manager, but the same message appears. Downloading and reinstalling the drivers for the device does not resolve the issue. Can you help to restore my CD-RW/DVD drive to operation?

Generally you do not need to install special drivers for CD-RW or DVD drives, as the drivers for this type of device are included in Windows XP. Therefore, we should be able to resolve the problem without the need to install third-party drivers. I am glad to see that you have already tried uninstalling and reinstalling the device within the Device Manager, as many times this will solve the problem. That said, in your case this has obviously not solved the problem so we will need to consider some alternative methods.

First, there is an article on Microsoft Knowledge Base (support.microsoft.com/kb/314060) concerning similar errors to the one being experienced on your computer. The article deals with the scenario where you can no longer access a CD or DVD drive after uninstalling a third-party CD or DVD burning program from Windows XP. While this may not be the exact scenario you have experienced, the steps in the article do provide a starting point for resolving this issue. In the Knowledge Base article you have two options for implementing the fix detailed, you can either download the Guided Help or manually change the registry settings. The Guided Help will automatically make the changes required, whereas the manual instructions require you to manually edit the registry. I would suggest that you use the Guided Help version as this will be the easiest and safest method to make the registry changes. Please make sure you read the entire article before commencing and read the pre-requisite instructions, particularly that any third-party CD or DVD burning software should be removed prior to commencing the procedure. I also suggest that you print the article for easy reference while you are conducting the procedure.

If Method 1 in the Knowledge Base article does not resolve the issue, then I suggest that you try Method 2 and manually verify whether or not the Guided Help utility has actually removed the relevant registry entries (as detailed in Method 2. It is possible that the Guided Help utility did not execute correctly. Should this be the case, and the registry entries have not been removed, then you should follow the instructions within Method 2 to complete a manual removal of the entries and check whether this resolves the problem.

However, should neither the automatic (Method 1) or manual (Method 2) removal of the registry entries, as detailed in the Microsoft Knowledge Base article, resolve the problem, then we need to look at other potential causes. It is possible that the driver cache within Windows has become corrupted. The driver cache stores frequently used device driver information files which are used during the installation of hardware. If this file has become corrupted it is possible that Windows cannot correctly install the required drivers for your CD-RW/DVD drive. To fix this potential problem, we need to delete the driver cache file. This will force Windows to rebuild the file using the original (good) copies of the driver files. Logon to the computer using an administrator account, and then open Windows Explorer (or My Computer). We first need to enable the display of hidden files and folders, since the driver cache file is a hidden system file. Go to the “Tools” menu > “Folder Options”. In the Folder Options window that appears, click the “View” tab. Enable “Show hidden files and folders”. Click OK to close the window. Navigate to the location “C:windowsinf” and locate the file named “INFCACHE.1”. Rename the INFCACHE.1 file to something else, such as INFCACHE.1.OLD (this means if things go pear shaped we can restore the original file). Restart the computer, and then uninstall the CD-RW/DVD drive. Once this has been done, restart the computer again. Windows should recognise the CD-RW/DVD drive on startup and will attempt to reinstall the device. If all goes well, the device should reinstall properly.

Should you still encounter difficulties, it is possible that there is something physically wrong with the CD-RW/DVD drive, which is why the device is no longer being recognised by Windows. To test this theory we can try booting off a CD before Windows starts. This will take Windows entirely out of the equation, allowing us to test whether the CD/DVD drive is working independently of Windows. Insert your Windows XP CD into the drive and then restart the computer. If your computer has been set to boot off the CD/DVD drive then the computer should start booting off the Windows XP CD. If you find that the computer goes directly to the Windows XP logo (splash) screen then it appears that your computer has not been set to boot off the CD drive. In this case, restart the computer again and during the power-on self-test part of the boot process (i.e. all the messages which appear on screen before the Windows splash screen appears) you should see an instruction to press a certain combination of keys to open a boot menu (or like) with all the different boot devices. When this appears, press the nominated combination of keys and a menu should appear allowing you to select which device to boot from (e.g. hard drive, CD-ROM drive, etc). Select the CD/DVD drive. Provided that the computer successfully boots into the Windows XP setup then it seems that the CD/DVD drive is fine, and the problem is squarely related to Windows itself. In this case, please contact me again for further advice on this issue.

However, if the computer does not boot from the CD (yet the CD/DVD drive is making whirring noises like it is trying to read the CD) it seems that your CD/DVD drive is faulty. In this case, you will need to take the machine to a computer shop to have the CD/DVD drive more fully investigated and replaced (if necessary). Fortunately such drives are very cheap, less than $40, so this should not be an expensive replacement.