Windows 10: External CD drive not recognized in Windows 10

Hi! I'm running Windows 10 on a Lenovo Flex 14 laptop. When I plug in my external CD drive which uses 2 USB ports, the drive spins the disk like it's connecting maybe this is just because it is drawing power but never appears as a device on my computer. No "eject hardware" option, nothing under "This PC," not even an error message or a prompt to update the driver. Just nothing. Ideas? Thanks in advance!

:)

 

CD/DVD drive not recognized

---I'm okay with opening latops. I've opened this one 3 times, adding SSD HD and upgrading RAM. I'll be able to try this later on, Friday, probably. With it spinning up when a CD is inserted, I'm not sure this would help. I'd appreciate advice on this.

 

CD/DVD drive not recognized

First, try inserting a disc in the drive, does it spin up?
Sometimes, it takes media in the device to be recognized, rare for an optical drive though.

A few other suggestions

• Try uninstalling the device in Dev mgr, wait 2 or 3 minutes and if Windows doesn't cycle though hardware changes, right click any device and select Scan for Hardware changes.
  
  
• You might also want to check File and Folder options in File Explorer
  press the blue file menu,
  select Change folder and Serach options
  select the View tab
  is show empty drives selected?
  
  
• It would help members if you could post a screen shot of Dev mgr device properties (post the first 4 tabs)
  If it is an unknown device -post the General tab and the Details.
  On the Details tab, select Hardware IDs from the drop down box
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

I'm not sure if these suggestions will help. I had a similar issue with a CD drive on a Vista box, turned out to be a hardware issue on the Mobo. The optical drive is really controlled by a few settings (DVD, CD, Writer) and when it doesn't work, it is hard to diagnose.

If the device worked before (recently), it's a Win10 issue, and it might be version specific. There are known issues with AMD graphics drivers, this might extend to the chipset as well - those with Intel boards / CPUs can ignore this part. It's a guess anyway.

If you're comfortable with hardware, you might try removing the optical drive from the box, restarting without it attached, and then shut down, reinstall the optical drive and start up the machine.

Follow instructions in the service manual for your device or on the mfr website.

 

adding usb cd rom external drive

Hi,



Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.



In order to get clarity and to assist you accordingly, please reply with the answers to the questions below.

• What is the Windows 10 version and Build installed? (Type
  winver in Windows search/Run command)
  
• What is the make and model of the PC?
  
• What is the make and model of the CD ROM device?
  
• What is the error you receive, when you plug in the CD ROM?

If the CD/DVD drive is not recognized by the PC then please refer this article:

Your CD or DVD drive is not recognized by Windows or other programs



Note: Important this section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify
the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs.

Follow the steps to take
backup of registry.




We await your response.



Aditya Roy

Microsoft Community – Moderator