cannot burn or copy CD in iTunes 8~ tried everything!

I have the same problen have tried the fixes and find it fixes itunes but cannot use the drives in other applications. The system does not recognize drive d and e until i edit out GEARAspiWDM from the registry. Then I can use the drives every Where but in itunes. Any suggestions.
I use 32 bit version of vista.

Jack

denali_uk - It worked for me too! YOU ROCK! I've been trying to find a fix since December and stumbled upon this thread. Everything else out there talks about messing with the registry and I wasn't comfortable with that. I also did the shortcut that others did - searched for the file, saved it to my desktop and then did the install. Badda bing, badda boom! No more error message when I open iTunes and no more not being able to burn cd's. Apples owes you something for this since they couldn't figure it out!

Now I need to get that Christmas cd burned that I promised one of my co workers back in December!

jackh255 wrote:
I have the same problen have tried the fixes and find it fixes itunes but cannot use the drives in other applications. The system does not recognize drive d and e until i edit out GEARAspiWDM from the registry. Then I can use the drives every Where but in itunes. Any suggestions.
I use 32 bit version of vista.

When I was first trying out various solutions I had very similar symptoms, that is I could get iTunes to work but Windows Explorer would not recognise the drive. It hadn't helped that I'd been doing a lot of the registry editing suggested in other threads -- removing filters etc. -- and didn't really know how to get things back to where they were.

All I can suggest is that you nuke everything from the system -- iTunes, Gear Drivers, any other burning software -- and start again with iTunes and the manually installed GEARAspiWDM.inf. This was the method that eventually worked for me, as outlined in my original post, and while a lot of users have been able to get away with just one or two of those steps, it might just help if your system has become confused with so much installation, uninstallation and over-installation.

It's a pain, but it's the only way to be certain. The usual caveat applies: my success was with XP, and despite one or two successful Vista users on this thread I can't guarantee it'll work with that particular OS.

Hi,
I followed step by step but it still isn't working for me. I have called the support line 3 times now and no one knows what is going on. Any ideas????

coco2688 wrote:
I followed step by step but it still isn't working for me. I have called the support line 3 times now and no one knows what is going on. Any ideas????

Which flavour of Windows Vista are you using? 32bit or 64bit? Right-click on the My Computer icon on your Desktop and choose Properties. Read all of the text, especially under System:, and let us know if it says '64 bit' (or even just '64') anywhere on that panel.

I just looked and I have a 32 bit but I am so bad with computers im nervous to fool around with it and do your suggestion haha. My friend tried solutions for 3 hours on Wednesday and the one thing that got rid of the message made my computer think I didnt have a CD burner anymore. It just disappeared haha. He fixed that problem and now im hesitant to even try anything. I want to go to the apple genius bar but of course I have a PC so they wont help me!

Denali I tried your fix and it got rid of the message but now my computer thinks I dont have a CD burner. When I go to My Computer it has the C and D drive but no E drive for the burning. Every time a fix works this is what happens. Then when I take it to best buy to get my E drive back the registry setting message appears again. Any suggestions?

JeniLeeSK8 wrote:
Every time a fix works this is what happens. Then when I take it to best buy to get my E drive back the registry setting message appears again. Any suggestions?

It'd be interesting to know what Best Buy are doing to replace the missing optical drive; I suspect they're just removing the filter driver entry(ies) from the Registry so you end up right back where you started. When you're taking the machine back are you explaining the context with the iTunes problem or just asking for them to restore the E drive? Paid repair guys tend to "repair to order", that is they will fix what you complain about and not worry too much about anything else they find ( or even anything else they break ) in the process. Maybe you need to task them with making the drive work in both Windows and iTunes?

As for the DIY solution it's hard to know how to progress with it, especially as you confess to being a computer novice. All I can say is that during my fight to get iTunes onto my wife's MSI Wind I witnessed all of the symptoms described here and in similar threads, including the loss of the drive from the Windows shell, and that ultimately it was the procedure outlined in my original post here that cured it.

Having said that, I had also been doing a bit of digging in the Registry to manually remove UpperFilters references to the Gear drivers and it's possible that played a factor in why the repair was successful without sacrificing Windows drive access.

In light of this all I can suggest -- if you can find someone comfortable with performing Registry edits -- is that you follow my original procedure (yes, including all the reboots if you really want to be certain) but before reinstalling iTunes use RegEdit to locate this key...

HKEYLOCALMACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlClass{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

...and remove the UpperFilters entry if it references the Gear driver. If it references anything else, my advice would be to leave it alone because there's a good chance it'll break something else if you mess with it.

Then reboot and continue re-installing iTunes, followed by the Gear drivers as per the procedure. Remember that you have Vista, not XP, so the driver installer won't be located exactly where I said in my original post. Your best call is to search the whole of the C:\ drive +including hidden folders+ for the GEARAspiWDM.inf file.

If that gives no joy then either your problem is unrelated, or you have something else installed on your system that prevents this procedure from working. Either way I can't think of any other options

😟

Sorry for taking so long Denali.

I actually starting Windows Vista over yesterday and now things seem to be running smoothly!

Denali - in the complete absence of help from Aplle themselves (I'm sorry but I have to speak as I find: what a waste of oxygen they are!).

Anyway I would value your thoughts as to why my itunes won't allow me to import a CD into my library. (It did at the very begining but now won't get past 3/4 tracks). I get a box pop up that says 'itunes has encountered an error and must shut down' and it does. I have windows XP on PC 32 bit. I tried your fixes regarding burning but they made no difference.

Would appreciate your thoughts

Cheers

Steve

i'm having the same problem. reinstalled itunes and nero. updated firmware for my burner. tried the whole gear driver thing. this is insane. for how much music i have sitting in limbo due to apples aac format, really infuriates me.
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Edition Service Pack 1 (Build 6001)
alienware Area-51 m9750
iTunes 8.1.1.10
QuickTime 7.6
FairPlay 1.3.6
iPod Updater Library 8.1d19
CD Driver 2.1.0.0
CD Driver DLL 2.1.1.1
Apple Mobile Device 2.4.1.7
Apple Mobile Device Driver 1.40.0.0
Bonjour 1.0.6.2 (118.5)

iTunes Serial Number 0971EEE9615B1D37

Current user is not an administrator.
The current local date and time is 2009-04-15 23:14:47.
iTunes is not running in safe mode.

Video Display Information

NVIDIA, NVIDIA GeForce 8700M GT


** External Plug-ins Information **

No external plug-ins installed.

** CD/DVD Drive Tests **

No drivers in LowerFilters.
UpperFilters: GEARAspiWDM (2.1.0.0),

Failed while scanning for CD / DVD drives, error 2355.
Virtual drives can sometimes interfere with reading and writing CDs in iTunes. If this is a virtual drive and you are having problems with other drives, try uninstalling the virtual CD application.

E: Unsupported CD or DVD drive.
Virtual drives can sometimes interfere with reading and writing CDs in iTunes. If this is a virtual drive and you are having problems with other drives, try uninstalling the virtual CD application.

Just doing step 5 works, do the search (I actually had like 30 x86 files, but just go to the one with Gear in it . . . I did the driver install (right click, install). Then restarted computer and burned without issue!!