Strange Computer Problem

[Emperor Devon]

As of today, whenever I log on to my computer I get the message "Administrator has prohibited access to CD/DVD ROM drives" (which is odd in how I and no one else has changed the access to it at all. Heck, I'm not even sure how to)

 

So, whenever I put a CD or DVD into my computer it doesn't recognize it, and usually tells me to insert the right disk or does nothing at all (I've tried it with quite a few disks and gotten the same results).

 

Any idea how I could go about fixing this?

[CSI]

Every DVD/CD? that means you need to change DVD/CD Player. But if you dare you can dissemble and try clean the lens head. But I don't recommend you to do so because you have to be extra careful--if you missed a part the whole optic drive is done for.

[Emperor Devon]

I don't think it's the DVD player that's the problem, but some weird setting that stops me from using it.

[Ray Jones]

Haha. Windows? What happens if you log in as "Administrator"?

[Emperor Devon]

Yep, Windows. The same thing happens when I log in as the admin, too.

[urluckyday]

Sounds almost like a trojan...virus scan maybe? You can also try digging around in the "Hardware" part of System properties (I really have no idea where to look). The best bet, is to try the first option first. If all else fails...reinstall windows...I know, it sounds bad, but that's all I got. Sorry, and good luck! (I am not responsible for any damages on your computer).

[Emperor Devon]

No viruses... Though if it's any help, after digging through some tech support forums I found a bunch of other people who had the same problem. Unfortunately it was due to Intel Desktop Utilities with all of them, a program that I don't have (or can't tell I have) installed. Odd.

[Johnpp]

You're Windows is not recognizing you're dvd/cd player?

 

Have you installed any new hardware lately?

[Emperor Devon]

Other than video games, no.

[Johnpp]

Try updating you're DVDplayers drivers. If that is possible.

[urluckyday]

That could work. You could either try to update their drivers (if you can find any updates)...or you could just reinstall the drivers altogether. Can't tell you where you'd find them though. Maybe on the manufacturer's website, or if you installed the DVD/CD drive yourself, it should just have come with it.

[Det. Bart Lasiter]

When all else fails, kick the **** out of it.

[urluckyday]

...that works too...then you get to buy a new computer that works for the first couple days...

[stingerhs]

well, if you want to see if its just the DVD drive itself, you're best bet would be to remove the drive and install it on another system (Windows should automatically configure the drivers for you on the new machine). if you run into a similar problem on that machine, then i suggest taking out your rage on the drive after removing the drive from the new computer. then, just go get a new one.

 

if that doesn't turn up any results, then i'll have to run through a couple of questions with you first starting with what version of Windows your compy is running.

[Emperor Devon]

I don't think it's the DVD drive itself that's the problem, but rather some weird setting that stops CDs from being played. That's what it seemed to be with the various other cases I found, and I can't think of anything that would affect the drive itself. It's worked fine until now and I never changed anything important when it first started acting up. I've got no extra system to test it on anyway, unfortunately.

 

I'm using Windows XP.

[Johnpp]

Try reinstalling Wondows XP.

[stingerhs]

umm, XP Home or Pro??

[Emperor Devon]

Whoops. Home.

[urluckyday]

Yea, that might be helpful to know...whatever you do though...do not call the Geek Squad or some equivalent...please...

[stingerhs]

well, it shouldn't be Windows, then, since Home doesn't have the features to block users from accessing a drive. are you using a firewall aside from the one built into Windows??

[Astrotoy7]

lolz.... here's a couple of simple things you can try:

 

1. system restore to a time you remember it was working OK. It is highly likely that something you have put on recently has buggered it up - often games that have a network component, or proggies that have a disc burning component do this. (Happened to me in Vista with Photoshop Elements) Reinstall the programs/games and check after each one to find the culprit

 

2. check what the device manager says. Does it say the drive is working properly ? I'd even try an uninstall of teh drive from the device manager, windows will then automagically find it and install its default drivers for it.

 

3. Once installed, you can use the device manager to let windows update search for ran updated driver. Some drives do have firmware upgrades, but if yours was workin great until just recently, I wouldnt bother.

 

let us know how you go

 

mtfbwya

[Ray Jones]

Try a Linux Live CD. You just need to download the ISO and then burn it.. ;

 

Seriously, have you checked if the drive is working properly without windows?

 

In other words: before you join those who reinstall (haha *points*) Windows because of a not working CD/DVD drive, you might want to try to boot from from your Windows-Installation-CD that came with your computer, first.

 

If it does boot, come back here, if not, then face it, sometime hardware just dies without that you can do something about it. You can of course put your drive into another machine, or put a different drive into yours to check these kind of things.

 

Alternatively, if the hardware is working fine on "boot-level", I'd say you installed some CD/DVD writing software, that might have installed a new ASPI driver (aspi.dll) which is not compatible with some other DLL (I forgot the name) which was not updated in the process. This sometimes happens when you install five different CD/DVD creating programs at once. Or you installed some ASPI-driver update, which basically does the same. if you say "no" to both cases, there might have been a Windows patch coming with a new aspi.dll (or related) bringing you fun. Anyway, if this is somehow the case, the system restore function is an easy way to lose many changes just to get your drive back to work, my way would be to fiddle around with the different backed up DLL versions. Or you can try to uninstall said software/patch.

[tk102]

Guys, this is obviously an OS account-rights issue, not a hardware issue, not a driver issue.

 

 

ED -- can you currently use Windows Explorer to browse a data CD? If you can do that, then perhaps this will be of use:

 

I dug out the Windows XP/2000 Answer Book and found this:

FAQ 6.18 How do I control access to floppy drives and CD-ROM drives?

By default Windows NT allows any program to access the floppy and CD-ROM drives. In a secure environment, you may only want the interactive user to be able to access the drives, and this is accomplished using the Registry:

1. Start the Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE)

2. Move to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon.

3. From the Edit Menu, select New Reg_SZ type.

4. To allocate floppy drives, create a name "AllocateFloppies"; to allocate CD-ROM drives, "AllocateCDRoms".

5. Press Enter and set the value to 1.

6. Log out and lon on again.

 

So my advice is to look in that part of the registry and if you see AllocateCDRoms REG_SZ value there, delete it.

 

 

Edit:

 

Also, there is a Microsoft utility called the Shared Computer Toolkit for Windows XP that you can download and use to view/edit User Security Policies including "Prevent or allow access to any data drive on the computer." (FAQ, Benefits and features)

[Ray Jones]

Hey, who else thinks we should kill t-e-e-k-a-a-y for being the wise-ass?

[tk102]