A Driver for This Device Was not Required and has Been Disabled (Code 32)?

Infopackets Reader Ken H. writes:

" Dear Dennis,

In the device manager, all of my DVD and CD-ROM devices won't work. Device Manager states that 'a driver for this device was not required and has been disabled (Code 32)'.

Question: how can I get these devices to work again? I have uninstalled them and restarted the computer to let it find new drivers but that didn't work. I have scanned my PC for viruses and am clean. I have also researched this topic in Google and found a post which states that this error message can appear if you have Roxio Easy CD Creator (which I do). The post suggested a 'registry fix' to resolve the issue. The problem is that I don't know if I trust the information enough to do that, plus I'm not sure how to back up the registry in case I mess something up. Can you help? "

My response:

I have a number of suggestions.

If you suspect Roxio is the culprit (or any other CD recording software for that matter), uninstall the software, reboot the machine, and see if that helps.

If your issue is resolved after uninstalling Roxio, you can try the Registry Fix that you referred to, or choose an alternative to Roxio. I personally use Ashampoo CD Burning Studio because it's full-featured and easy to use.

Ashampoo Burning Studio 6 Review

Information on backing up the registry can be found using these links: for Windows 2000; for Windows XP and Server 2003.

Alternative Suggestions

If none of the above suggestions work, try booting the computer into Safe Mode, delete all the CD drives under Device Manager, then restart in normal mode. Windows should re-detect the devices. For some reason, Safe Mode sometimes lists "phantom" devices; by deleting all of the CD and DVD ROM drives in Safe Modem and then having Windows redetect the drives "from scratch" may resolve the issue.

If you enabled Ultra DMA mode on one of the devices in Device Manager, this can also cause issues (especially if both drives are connected on one cable and one isn't compatible with Ultra DMA). If this is the case, disable Ultra DMA on all devices one at a time, reboot, and try again.

If you were recently inside your computer and changed some hardware, you may have inadvertently reversed a cable or set your Master / Save switches incorrectly on the CD or DVD ROM drives. In either case, open up the PC again and make sure the hardware is set properly.

If you have more than one CD / DVD ROM chained together on a single cable, one bad device can impede both from operating properly. In this case you'd have to either run them on separate channels or run them (one at a time) to determine which device is bad.

If you recently upgraded your computer to a new motherboard and are still running an old copy of Windows, you may need backup your most critical files, format your hard drive, and reinstall Windows. I say this because all Windows installations are meant for specific hardware and can cause the strange behavior to occur (as you've described) if the improper driver is loaded on the wrong hardware.

For a detailed guide on how to backup your most critical files, format the hard drive, and reinstall Windows, refer to my How to Re:Install Windows eBook and Video tutorial.

http://www.infopackets.com/articles/reinstallwindows.htm

Hope that helps ;-)