I am playing in my Win8 sandbox to create this post. That is the name I gave my computer when I loaded Windows 8 on it a just over a month ago. Gee, it sure seems a lot longer than that. Hmm… I don’t know if that is a good sign or a bad one. Here is the First Look.
The OS seems to be running flawlessly except for one hardware problem. The OS doesn’t recognize my DVD/CD drive. The computer boot ROM setup (Alt-F1,etc.) before the OS gets started shows the drive in the list. I used the drive (Drive D:) to load Windows 8 so it was working in the install process.
I am thinking it was working for awhile after the install at but I won’t place a bet on that. (I would have lost.)
I did a refresh with the original Win8 CD I created and the computer read the disk in the drive on start-up and booted into the “Install Program” screen, no problem. I selected Refresh System as it promised not to erase my files. The files are fine but it erased all my non Windows apps! Bad choice but not deadly as all my apps on this machine are free. I did have to go find and reload them from the Internet.
The disappointment was it didn’t fix my DVD/CD problem. Win8 still didn’t know I have a DVD/CD drive. Why does it work as a boot drive but not in Win8. Seems to be an Operating System problem to me. This is a Beta version of Win8 after-all.
I did a search on the Internet. Hey! This IS a regular Win8 problem! Here is the official fix from MS:
1. Run Command Prompt as an Administrator. Type cmd in Windows 8 modern UI and press cltr+shift+enter
2. Type following and say enter
reg.exe add “HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\atapi\Controller0” /f /v EnumDevice1 /t REG_DWORD /d 0x00000001
3. Reboot the system
Sure, this is wonderful. Install doesn’t set up an Administrator Account so now MS assumes I know how to do that (I do.). What the heck is a “Windows 8 modern UI”? Hmm… add three finger line feed ctl+shift+enter. Type that mess, no – better to copy paste, then what, “SAY” enter? Ah – I don’t have voice command installed. Yeah, I know how to reboot.
Actually this is a simple register edit. Bring up the CMD window as administrator, enter code, re-boot. It could be fixed with regedit too.
Yes, this fixed the problem. I would think MS would have this fixed already on a post new install update. Go figure. Well yeah, remember Dan, it’s a Win8 Beta. Got to leave in some faults. I understand.
This drive has always been a worry as I bought the cheapest (~$15.00) when I built the computer a few years ago. This was because I seldom use the CD drive except for new software. A lot of software is now downloaded from the Internet. The cheap drive always had a noise and vibration problem. Kind of a buzz sound that seems to me to be a balance issue. In any case a failure wasn’t unexpected. So my first thought was a bad drive.
Now that it is not a bad drive I plan to replace it anyway. I’ll splurge on a $25.00 drive and not suspect it is a hardware problem next time.