Help with Piriform Registry Cleaner

I ran Piriform registry cleaner on an old desktop to try it out - worked great. No problems. I then ran it on my laptop (running Vista Home). It fixed almost everything in one pass, but took two more passes until it found nothing else to correct. This left me with three files under "Documents" with the data to restore things to how they used to be, and a computer that I assumed would work better.

Everything seemed fine, until I tried to use my CD/DVD. Now I get error messages. When I go to device manager, I see an icon for each, with the yellow question mark. When I try to update the driver, the computer says I'm already up to date. When I look further, it says the driver is corrupted.

When I search on Microsoft, I learn that this can be caused by errors in the registry.

I can post the specific details here if that would help. What I think I want to do right now, is restore the registry to the way it used to be, which I assume means clicking on the ".reg" files that were stored in MyDocuments, doing this in reverse order, starting with the newest file and working backwards to do the other two.

Is this correct?

Hi Mike, and welcome to Piriform.

CD/DVD drives usually just have generic Microsoft drivers controlling them. You can check this by right clicking, selecting "properties", and then "driver".

If so, your best bet is to simply right click and "uninstall" them.

Windows will reinstall them after a reboot, and all should then be OK. This is the usual way to fix corrupt MS drivers.

Make sure also that you have no yellow exclamation marks beside any of your "Secondary IDE Channels" in the "IDE Controllers" section.

And to be honest, I've never restored multiple registry backups with CCleaner, so I must admit that I would be guessing about which order to restore them, or even if they would all need restoring.

Try the uninstall-reboot option first, as that should fix the corrupt drivers. If it helps, I've done this on numerous occasions with faulty MS drivers, and it's always fixed the problem.

Thanks for the suggestions.

First, I checked for the yellow exclamation marks; there are only two of them, in front of each of the following:

IZS 89U3C1QJ SCSI CdRom Device

MATSHITA DVD-RAM UJ-850S ATA Device

I tried going to device manager, and removing both of them (as you suggested). The computer came back up, re-installed the drivers, but no change. I get the same error.

I then clicked on each of the CCleaner .reg files, to restore things back to where they were (doing a system restore point first). Again, no change.

If I double click on either of the two items, I get the following message in the General Tab from Device Properties:

"Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Code 39)"

If I remove and re-install the driver, nothing changes.

Unlikely as it seems to me, maybe my CD/DVD drive died, but in that case, I'd expect the driver to still be OK.

I've also tried doing a search for the error message "Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Code 39)"

I did a search for "Vista" along with the above text, and got to this site:

http://www.vistax64.com/vista-hardware-dev...ot-working.html

They've got some things at the end that sound possible, but very complicated (to me). Here's the text, copied from the above site:

-----------------------------

From Microsoft.... this takes about 5 minutes to do...

Method 2: Manually delete the registry entries

Important This article contains information about how to modify the

registry. Make sure that you back up the registry before you modify it. Make

sure that you know how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more

information about how to back up, restore, and modify the registry, click the

following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

256986 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/256986/) Description of the

Microsoft Windows registry

Warning Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly

by using Registry Editor or by using another method. These problems might

require that you reinstall the operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee

that these problems can be solved. Modify the registry at your own risk.Log

on to Windows by using an account that has administrator rights and

permissions. Then, follow these steps.

Step 1: Start Registry Editor

Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK. Registry Editor

starts.

Step 2: Delete the UpperFilters registry entry

1. In Registry Editor, expand My Computer, and then expand

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

2. Expand SYSTEM, and then expand CurrentControlSet.

3. Expand Control, and then expand Class.

4. Under Class, click {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}.

5. In the right pane (topic area), click UpperFilters.

Note An UpperFilters.bak registry entry may also appear. To delete the

UpperFilters registry entry, you must click UpperFilters and not

UpperFilters.bak.

6. On the Edit menu, click Delete.

7. When you receive the following message, click Yes to confirm the deletion

of the UpperFilters registry entry:

Are you sure you want to delete this value?

The UpperFilters registry entry is removed from the

{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} registry subkey.

Note Do not exit Registry Editor. You must have this program for the next

step.

Step 3: Delete the LowerFilters registry entry

1. In Registry Editor, expand My Computer, and then expand

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

2. Expand SYSTEM, and then expand CurrentControlSet.

3. Expand Control, and then expand Class.

4. Under Class, click {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}.

5. In the right pane (topic area), click LowerFilters.

Note An LowerFilters.bak registry entry may also appear. To delete the

LowerFilters registry entry, you must click LowerFilters and not

LowerFilters.bak.

6. On the Edit menu, click Delete.

7. When you receive the following message, click Yes to confirm the deletion

of the LowerFilters registry entry:

Are you sure you want to delete this value?

The LowerFilters registry entry is removed from the

{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} registry subkey.

8. Exit Registry Editor.

Step 4: Restart the computer

If a CD recording program no longer works after you restart the computer,

you must reinstall the CD recording program.

Back to the top

Sad that the simple solution didn't work for you, but it was worth trying all the same, and wouldn't do any harm.

I don't have a simple answer for you mike as all I can do is assist with searching for a solution, and googling the name of one of your drives pops up lots of folk with the same problem.

MATSHITA DVD-RAM UJ-850S ATA Device:

One of those links looks promising as it doesn't involve messing with the registry.

http://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-7743-ma...a-device-driver

Scroll down to the section by "Skeeter.Gz"

The link in the solution doesn't lead to the correct page. This is the one it should link to:

http://support.microsoft.com/gp/cd_dvd_drive_problems

It appears to be pretty straightforward, and worth a try I would think.

I'll keep looking around for ideas, and if any of the other guys on here have any thoughts, I'm sure they'll jump in.

The upper and lower filter fix is one that works quite well for this problem. You must reboot afterwards.

You may need to reinstall your burning software again afterwards.

Here is a picture which may help

http://common.packardbell.com/itemnr/topic...topic_02125.gif

A simple screenshot makes that look so much simpler hazel.

Thanks!!

I'll try the following (copied from the other page, with both the originally posted link, and your corrected link):

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Skeeter.Gz@msn.com - Mar 20, 2010 10:58pm GMT

Sorry it took me so long. I've actually known about this fix it web site for about 3 years but it fixes other hardware issues too.

I found the resolution to the Matshita DVD-Ram UJ-850s ATA Device Drivers.

This is different than altering your registry, and it works via Microsoft Vista Home Premium

Please follow directions carefully or either the Read or the Write won't work.

In order for this to work - (YOU WILL NEED A BLANK DVD AND A FULL DVD WITH SOME KIND OF PROGRAM ON IT)

old link: http://support.microsoft.com/fixit#tab2

corrected link: http://support.microsoft.com/gp/cd_dvd_drive_problems

Click (or copy and paste) the link above to begin the process. Click on the first option Your CD/DVD drive cannot read or write media in Windows Vista. Click on the big "RUN NOW" button to the right, then select "Continue" when your computer asks your permission. Then Select Detect problems and apply the fixes for me (Recommended). It gives you two options "Read a CD/DVD and Write a CD/DVD" you will need to run both options separately once for each issue you're having with your hardware. You will see your device listed, click on your device. It will ask you for a disc. For the Read part of it, you need to insert a DVD Disc with something on it such as a program, of any kind. Insert the disc and click on your device. NOTE: If you forget to insert a full DVD Disc your DVD Device door will pop out, then you will be forced to insert a DVD disc with a program on it. The program will continue and configure your DVD device.

After it completes return back to the first page where it says "RUN NOW". Click on "RUN NOW' again and follow the same steps. When you see the screen with the two options "Read a CD/DVD and Write a CD/DVD" and "Write a CD/DVD", this time select "Write a CD/DVD" option. NOTE: IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU INSERT A BLANK DVD IN ORDER TO COMPLETE THIS PROCESS. The program is configuring the write portion and it needs to be able to write on the blank DVD in order to complete the process. Then follow the rest of the steps and complete the process.

THAT'S IT !!!

Congratulations, you can now use 100% of you DVD device and there is no risk with altering the registry.

Sincerely Skeeter_Gz@msn.com

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I read the whole discussion at the other website, and something on that page seems to be fixing people's CD/DVD drives, but I'm not sure if it is the above solution or changing the registry.

I need to get a blank DVD and try this out.....

To DennisD:

I went to the link you provided.

I selected the option to download the tools, and run the "fixit" program. (Several components were downloaded, after which the program was ready to run.)

I ran the program, then selected the option to repair anything that was wrong.

In less than a minute, EVERYTHING was fixed, and now appears to be working perfectly!!!!!

THANK YOU!!!!!

Here's a link to several "fixit" utilities from Microsoft:

http://support.microsoft.com/fixit

Really glad your back to burning dvd's again, as I am sure Dennis will be.

If you look just a bit further down (in the link that works) it leads to this

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/982116

Which shows how to do the upper/lower filters fix yourself.

But sometimes messing with the registry can be scary so it's great to know the Microsoft fixit utility worked :)

Happy burning!!!

Well done mike, I'm really happy it worked for you.

In case of future problems involving the registry, I would strongly recommend getting acquainted with "ERUNT", which is a full registry backup tool.

ERUNT:

Lots of us use it, and have it configured to backup the entire registry once per day at first boot. You can configure it to save X number of days on a rolling basis so the backups don't build up into a ridiculous amount of mb, or get too out of date.

Most serious issues involve the registry in one way or another, and having that daily backup can be a life saver.

ERUNT with Vista. (Taken from FAQ's)

Question: Do ERUNT and NTREGOPT run on Windows Vista?

Answer: Yes. To make sure the programs are executed with proper administrative privileges, you should however turn off User Account Control in Vista’s system settings.

If you have the disk space I would also suggest having a look at "Macrium Reflect", which is a "Disk Image" backup application. It can make an "Image" of your entire System Drive, which can be restored in the event of mega problems like a complete system failure.

Macrium Reflect:

What is a Disk Image?:

Lots of the members use these programs, so advice is always available.

I guess I've got a lot that I still need to do.

1 - The easy step (I think) is to get that program and make a backup copy of my registry "just in case". I doubt I need to do it every day, but it should be good insurance.

2 - The way I think I might have gotten into this mess to begin with, was to use the Piriform registry cleaner. Now that I've restored my old settings, *and* fixed the problem with my CD/DVD, I'm rather hesitant to run the registry cleaner again. (Now that with your help, I've dug myself out of the hole I created and then fell into, do I really want to do it all over again?)

3 - This is being done on a more or less "stock" Toshiba Satellite. Everything is in drive "C", which is not how I like things to be done. I'd rather have a drive C for "system" and a drive D for "data" (my stuff). In that case, if I ever lose the system drive, I've still got my "files and email". Eventually I'll get that done for my laptop(s) just as I did for my desktop.

4 - The original plan, up until two days ago, was to spend a few days while I'm visiting my brother, and fully back up the Toshiba (done), then move move of my stuff off the computer (done), and run the Windows 7 update DVD which is supposed to leave all my programs in place, but upgrade from Vista to Win 7. At some point I'll want to install Windows 7 64-bit, but that means re-installing all my programs, which I don't want to do right now.

5 - I'm not all that thrilled with this laptop as it has a problem nobody has been able to explain, let alone fix, and it's bigger and heavier than what I want. I've still got my much older Sony Vaio PCG-TR3AP laptop which weighs next to nothing and is small enough to fit in a purse. I've wanted to replace the Toshiba with a more modern version of that Vaio, but once I found what I wanted (Sony TT series) Sony discontinued them all, and it seemed the only way to get one was to pay a fortune over ebay, or bring one back from Hong Kong. By sheer luck I found a reburb TT series for sale at Sony Style, and I'll have it by next Wednesday, meaning this computer will then be surplus.

The things you're describing sound like the plan for the future - it's a win/win situation, as if I don't need the backups it won't hurt anything, and if I do, I'll be in better shape than before. Would you suggest getting that software, doing a backup, then trying to "clean" my Vista registry with the Piriform program?

(I'll enter a new discussion topic for the strange problem I have with this computer - neither Toshiba tech support nor anyone I've discussed it with have any suggestions.....)

I think under the circumstances mike, I would refrain from running the registry cleaner again.

I've ran CCleaner "Issues" with everything checked for well over 3 years without any problems I'm been aware of, but it isn't a necessity to clean the registry.

The fact that you have everything on one drive doesn't leave you much leeway for recovery, as you can't store a backup Disk Image on the drive you want to backup. You would need either a separate partition on that drive, or a second hard drive.

You can make a Macrium Image of your System Drive and save it to DVD/DVD's, but that's something I wouldn't like to rely on, although it would be better than no backup at all.

ERUNT, I would start using as soon as you become acquainted with it.

As you say, include them in your plans, as backing up is an essential part of computing (for want of a better term), and for now leave the registry alone.

Hope that helps.

Quick question - let's say I eventually create a 50-gig (or whatever) "system" partition, then make the disk image as you suggest, and store it on another partition. Will the size of this new partition be the full 50 gigs, or only whatever space is actually used? Just curious - it sounds like a good plan, as long as I have disk space (which is getting so inexpensive nowadays that it's not worth worrying about).

I can't do any of this yet, but one way or another I want "my" files in a separate partition from the "system" just in case.

My System Drive is about 26gb, and the Image comes in at around 12gb.

Some relevant information here from a previous discussion:

http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showto...st&p=161314