iTunes 7.6 makes my DVD drive disappear

Can you do me a favor as an experiment? If you go to the Gear Software page, and download the standalone driver and install that, do you still have the problem?

I am having the exact same problem as the thread starter and have just tried downloading and installing the driver from the gear website.
however it doesnt fix the problem and my CD drive still disappears!

Is there anywhere I can contact Apple about this or even better does anybody know a definite fix for this issue?

Thanks

I am having the same problem since the upgrade. I followed the instructions above and deleted the "UpperFilters" entry under the "HKEY LOCALMACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318 }" registry key. After rebooting, my DVD drive reappeared.

I then downloaded and installed the 32-bit Gear drivers, as recommended. They just made the DVD drive disappear again. So, I uninstalled them, rebooted, deleted the "UpperFilters" registry entry again, and rebooted again. The DVD drive reappeared.

Now whenever I start iTunes, it tells me to reinstall iTunes because there is a problem with the CD/DVD component and I have to click OK to get into iTunes.

Can you please let us know how to fix this so our CD/DVD drives still work in iTunes?

Thanks.

Rob

I am having same issue. i downloaded, uninstalled, reinstalled, went into registry, tried gear download, did everything i found on the web. no luck. I called HP and they stated that until microsoft comes out with the new service pack we won't be able to use itunes.
i am trying to figure out a way to contact apple and ms to complain.

I have the EXACT same issue and have been for three months now, if you Google the problem there are LOTS of people with the same issue. However, I am reponding to this post because I read someone said HP was blaming Microsoft. Let me correct the, this is an APPLE issue NOT MS. I used Vista and iTunes together for 6-mos and was able to use and burn DVDs. However, starting the fall of 2007 iTunes upgraded (don't remember which version), and then I was unable to use them. This has NOTHING to do with MS. As someone has already said it is the GEAR Driver that iTunes (APPLE) installs. Once you delete that, yeah you won't be able to use iTunes to export songs or make CDs, but you will be able to use your DVD. If you want this fixed, EVERYONE who reads this email APPLE, it is THEIR FAULT. Don't believe the hype as Apple always blames MS first!!!! However, they fail to mention iTunes worked perfectly fine in 2007 summer, and only after an upgrade by APPLE to iTunes did the problem appear!!!! If they went back to the older driver and NOT used this new Gear driver everything would be fine, why else would someone suggest to go to Gear's website and install that driver????? MS didn't install that driver APPLE DID!!!!!!!!!!

I have the same problem. I am frustrated because I do not know where to go. I have always used iTunes with windows and had no problems. I purchased a new HP Pavilion laptop last summer and installed itunes on it (Vista) and it still worked great. Then all the sudden in the fall when an update came out for itunes it no longer worked. I did everything listed above but you are stuck with either A) CD/DVD works on your laptop and iTunes can't burn or rip music OR B) CD/DVD drive does NOT work on your latop and although iTunes doesn't have an error you STILL can't burn music. Its an unfortunate problem and anyone who finds a way to solve this it would be much appreciated! FYI Microsoft DID come out with SP1 update to Vista for a trial run before its release. It is available for download, I have installed it and the iTunes issue is not fixed, I think Apple needs to figure out whats wrong.

I guess I'm not the only one having problems with the new version of iTunes. Ever since I downloaded it (iTunes + Quicktime) I can't run iTunes at all. Everytime I tried I get a message: Quicktime failed to initialize (error -2096)QuickTime is required to run iTunes. Please re-install iTunes. I've re-installed it five times and whats worse is that QuickTime has royally jacked up my computer, I still have to keep changing my files so they'll stop trying to open with the stupid thing.

Is there any way to fix this?

I, too, am having this exact same problem. I have worked with Dell Computer technicians for hours, trying to solve it. They have been very dilligent, even furnishing me a new DVD drive, thinking that it might be the drivers for the original drive that were conflicting. After installing the new drive, the problem still exists - exactly the same - as if I had done nothing. Shame on whoever is responsible for not developing a fix for this problem!!

As stated as soon as I load I-Tunes version 7.6 on my New HP Pavilion DV9000 running Vista it causes my CD-DVD player to disappear. If I uninstall I-Tunes the CD-DVD player reinstalls itself as if it is new hardware and works without any problems.

I have an older desktop running Windows XP and with the latest version of I-Tunes loaded and it works without any CD-DVD problems.

So it appears it is an issue with the newer version of I-Tunes and Vista.

So I looked for an older version of I-Tunes on the web and found the following web site.
http://www.oldversion.com/program.php?n=iTunes

I downloaded I-Tunes version 7.0.2 - but before I installed it I removed the newer version from my laptop and I copied and moved my I-Tunes files. I had to copy and move my files because the first time I installed the older version of I-Tunes it wouldn't open because it said it found a newer version installed - even though I used Vista to uninstall it.

After I installed the older version I simply copied my music back into the new folder it recreated and now my CD-DVD player is finally working.

PS - I just burn 5 disks after a week of this madness.

Good Luck.

Message was edited by: Smooth KC-135

Thankyou thankyou! I uninstalled iTunes 7.6 and installed iTunes 7.0.2 Problem solved, my computer can now 'see' the dvd drive and itunes is fully functional. The only downside as far as I can see would be for those that have an iPhone, which I don't. (7.0.2 doesn't support iPhones)

Like you, itunes 7.0.2 wouldn't initially install because it saw my itunes library had been made by a newer version. I just renamed it and itunes found it during installation and copied it for me.

Now can anyone answer why iTunes can't/won't fix this glaring software incompatability?

Max

You are awesome!!! I have been taking my computer into Best Buy for months now thinking there was something wrong with my brand new laptop. Hopefully this older version will solve all my problems as well. Even Geek Squad couldn't fugure this out.

Ya, I had the same problem with my vista laptop. I tried several things including removing my security product(which was a bad mistake) because MS was saying the problem was caused by Trend Micro. Well, I later figured out that it was iTunes because I restored my computer to the time before I upgraded iTunes and the DVD drive came back up, so it definately was something to do with a certain registry entry that apple installed. This problem started with iTunes 7.5 and I have upgraded to 7.6 again and havent had that problem since.

We have a new HP dv9650us running Vista Home premium. Our DVD/CD drive disappears after installing iTunes 7.6 (or any version back to 7.0.2). I've done all of the filter deletes etc. and nothing helps. Unfortunately, we just bought an iPod that we cannot use. Is there any real solution to this problem Mr. Apple?

Your iTunes should still work just the drive doesn't show. To simply get your drive back online do this:
1) Go to search bar in start menu
2) Type "regedit"
3) Go through the following folders "SYSTEM" -> "CURRENT CONTROL SET" -> "CONTROL" -> "CLASS" -> then open the folder "{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}"
4) Now on the right side you see "upper filters" and "lower filters"
5) Delete these upper and lower filters, just click once and then hit the delete key. Sometimes you only see upper filters or only lower filters, if so just delete whatever of the two is there.
6) Click out of there and restart

Now when you restart and come back to windows iTunes will work and the drive will be there. The problem that, unless you get an old version of iTunes which you lose some features with, is that itunes says it needs to be re-installed in order for the drive to work. But if you do that it erases the drive again. So as of now unless you go to a lower version there is no way to use the CD player with iTunes. This is a problem with Apple and currently no attempt for a solution has been made. You kind of have to live with one of the above steps. But at least you can use your drive and itunes. Hope this helps, I want a true solution as bad as you do.

All i can say its been the worst 3 months of my life trying to work out what was wrong with my computer and itunes 7.5/6.
Today i unistalled everything connected to ITUNES (apple) on my windows vista and then re-installed an older version of itunes 7.4.3 emailed to me from apple. My computer at first refused to accept because it says newer version of itunes library detected. So i had to delete my itunes library (loosing all my songs in my library including purchased ones - but songs still remain on my ipod) but it now all works. My DVD drive remains and no error messages from itunes. All very complicated in my opinion ..... for non-computer experts like me .... it is well stressful.