Reinstalling iTunes has stopped DVD/cd drive working

Question

Reinstalling iTunes has stopped DVD/cd drive working

Hi

I have had the same problem as everyone else regarding the latest iTunes update.

I followed the advice here and uninstalled all apple software in the correct order.

I then reinstalled iTunes which worked fine.

However, I have since discovered my DVD/CD drives won't work. They won't recognise a disk in the drive.

They were working fine before and when I did a system restore to a date prior to the iTunes update, they worked fine again.

But as soon as I fix iTunes, it breaks the DVD drive. There must be something in the software update conflicting.

I never had this problem when I first installed iTunes years ago. It's only occurred with the reinstall of the latest version.

I am running Vista on a Dell computer.

Can anyone help please or point me in the right direction?

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Best wishes

iPhone 4, iOS 5

Posted on Feb 2, 2014 4:21 PM

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Answer 1

turingtest2

Level 10

274,442 points

Feb 2, 2014 4:28 PM in response to Tractor Shark

Try TS2308: iTunes for Windows: Optical drive is no longer recognized, or "Disc burner or software not found" alert after install.

tt2

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Answer 2

Feb 3, 2014 4:34 PM in response to turingtest2

Hi

Thanks for replying. Unfortunately, I have gone through the steps on the link and it has made no difference.

Just to confirm, I am running Vista.

If I uninstall iTunes the DVD/CD drive works perfectly well, so the drivers must be up to date. I have checked Windows and it says they are fine.

I have looked for the afs.sys and afs2k.sys file in Windows\system32\drivers and those files are not there.

The closest I can find is an afd.sys which says it is an Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock. I presume it is not that.

I therefore cannot remove these files or change them as per the instruction.

I have noticed when I click on Computer, the two DVD drives (E and F) have disappeared. They were there before this iTunes update/install and also when I uninstalled iTunes.

There must be something conflicting but I'm afraid I have no idea and am gradually getting frustrated by it all.

Can you please offer any more advice? I'd be grateful for any help from anyone.

Best wishes

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Answer 3

Feb 3, 2014 4:58 PM in response to Tractor Shark

I should add when I go to Device Manager, the DVD drives both have yellow exclamation marks against them. I've tried updating the drivers, Windows says they are up to date.

I have just searched the web for this problem and see others have suffered with it. I've read about Upper Filters but I have no idea what they are going on about.

Is there any chance a new iTunes update will solve this?

Like I say, any help gratefully received.

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Answer 4

Feb 4, 2014 2:52 AM in response to Tractor Shark

Has anyone got any advice on this issue? please.

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Answer 5

turingtest2

Level 10

274,442 points

Feb 4, 2014 3:28 AM in response to Tractor Shark

Hi, sorry I don't have anything specific to offer. Sometimes removing the devices from device manager and rebooting helps.

tt2

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Answer 6

Feb 4, 2014 7:31 AM in response to turingtest2

Hi tt2

I have deleted the registry keys for the Gear drivers and the DVD/CD drives are now working.

The only drawback is iTunes tells me I cannot burn or import CDs using iTunes. That's not so bad as I very rarely do that anyway.

Two questions, if I may:

No doubt Apple will be sending out another update for iTunes in due course, do you think this will solve my problem?

Also, my computer is getting a bit old. Is this conflict between the Gear drivers and my DVD drivers due to its age? Will a newer PC be affected?

I'm running Vista but obviously things have moved on a bit!!!!

Thanks for your help

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Answer 7

turingtest2

Level 10

274,442 points

Feb 4, 2014 8:34 AM in response to Tractor Shark

Hi, I never liked Vista. Windows 7 is what it should have been. Windows 8 (blocky vomit) is abhorent to anyone familiar with using a computer over the last 20 years. Might pay to jump now if you can find someone that will supply with Windows 7 installed. I have no idea what Apple might do or when, but it might pay to read any release notes before future updates. You could also drop a line to iTunes Feedback reporting that you have had to make the workaround with the Gear drivers and that your iTunes setup is therefore sub par.

tt2

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Answer 8

May 21, 2014 7:54 AM in response to Tractor Shark

This appears to be a problem with the design of iTunes. I can do the following on Windows 7 Professional 64 bit, Windows 8.1 64 bit (not Professional version), Windows 8.1 64 bit Professional version across laptops and desktops:

Uninstall iTunes 11.2

find CD/DVD drive in Device Manager

Device Manager has yellow warning with some information about registry problems

CD/DVD does not work: doesn't show up as a device in Windows Explorer, inserting CD/DVD doesn't lead to "tap here to decide what to do, etc, depending on OS).

So you can fix the problem by using System Restore to a point before uninstalling iTunes. That doesn't really help you, I am sure, since it's months since you reported the problem. This is an Apple issue. The problem and solution can also be replicated with iTunes 11.1.5. What kind of application software that doesn't even depend on the CD/DVD drive ruins the software under the drive or entries in a support file (the registry in this case) that enable the device. Note that this problem also occurred in 2008 in the support forum with some earlier versions of iTunes.

It appears not to be the case with iTunes 11.1.4 (32 bit version and 64 bit version) but I can't prove this yet.

Why was I exploring all of this? My kids have iPod Nanos. When they insert them into the USB port on their Windows 8.1 laptop and desktop iTunes kicks the device off the computer, i.e., the device shows up under Windows Explorer and then when iTunes 11.1.5 or 11.2 starts it can't recognize them and they drop off Explorer.

Apple's response to this last problem is to suggest the old rigmarole of reboot, uninstall and then reinstall iTunes (which then destroys the CD/DVD registry entries or something worse or both). But here's the odd thing: iTunes 11.1.4 definitely does not kick your iPod off your Windows computer and it seems, on uninstall not to ruin access to the CD/DVD drive. But 11.1.4 is no longer available from Apple. Why? Is this on purpose to cause problems for Windows users or is the problem bad design or just QA that misses some very obvious test cases?

Other solutions? Buy a new iPod Nano or iPod Touch and hope the problem goes away? My suggestion is to pay for Apple support and then make them fix the problem and explain what they did to fix it by posting the explanation in a public forum. Since I have an actual problem here -- my kids have music and iPods they can't upgrade iTunes -- I may do that.

I have two computers -- Windows 8.1 Professional desktop (32 bit) and a Windows 7 Professional laptop (64 bit) that have iTunes 11.1.4 and everything works fine. At some point fairly soon we would have to upgrade, but then the kids lose their iPod's ability to get more music. Is this something Apple really wants? Lost sales of music?

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