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DVD drive Error Code 39

A friend of mine was working as usual with his computer when, after a reboot, the DVDRW drive suddenly wasn't available to Windows XP. BIOS detected it and it was visible in the Device manager - though with the yellow symbol with the exclamation mark indicating a problem.

The optical drive Code 39 problem in Windows XP is described in Microsoft KB article 314060 and a summary will follow here:

Cause:

Windows registry has become corrupted.

Solution:

DISCLAIMER: This worked in this particular case. I cannot guarrantee it will work for you or in any case be held responsible for a crashed system. Try at your own risk! Perhaps a registry backup before hacking the registry entries would be a good idea?

Delete the following two entries in the registry, using RegEdit:

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

• UpperFilters
• LowerFilters

Reboot the computer. If there is no hardware error, the DVD+-RW drive should now be working.

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