Windows 10: Surface would not recognize external CD drive

My Surface is not recognizing the external CD drive. I used a usb hub and directly connect it, and it still wouldn't recognize it. The icon appears when there is no disc I've tried various discs and disappears when I insert a disc. The external CD drive is a simple plug and play drive.

:)

 

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.

 

Toshiba external hard drive not recognized

Hi Philip,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

I understand that the external hard drive is not recognized by the PC. I appreciate your efforts in trying to resolve the issue.
It would be great if you can answer these questions to assist you in a better way.

• Did you try connecting the Hardrive to different USB Port?
  
• Does the Hardrive get detected if you try connecting it to a different PC?
  
• Are you aware of any changes made to the computer recently?
  

I suggest you refer and follow the steps mentioned in the KB article and check if that resolves the issueError:
“USB Device not recognized” when you try to access a USB external hard drive

Note: Ignore method 2 & 5 from the above article.

Let us know how it goes.

Regards,

Zaki