DVD No workie issue

[DougBob]

I didn't know if you guys ever had this problem before, I know I hadn't. My DVD drive quit working and I had to delete the upper and lower filters in the registry subkey >
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E 965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

I did notice one of the Filters was pointed to a GEARAspiWDM.sys filter file. Hmm, any body got any idea what app installes this filter?

[Warhead]

itunes for one, i think there are others too.

its disabled my drives before too, definitely crapware

[DougBob]

Really, that's messed up. Thanks for the info.

[-IRC-MIKE]

I believe that registry key is the DVD Region setting. It sets your dvd player for the region.

Here is what I found on that particular filter: http://www.gearsoftware.com/support/...opic.php?t=584
http://www.runscanner.net/files/sys/...piwdm.sys.aspx

From what I've found, that GEAR crap is a software program itself. http://www.softwaretipsandtricks.com...spiWDMSYS.html
Here's what mine looks like. I'm sure it should be near the same but this is Vista:
Click to enlarge.




Anyway, I've got a buddy that has a similar problem with a Brand NEW drive but it is a DVD Burner. Is yours a burner too, or just a DVD Rom?

[Sirex]

4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318 is the class ID of the generic CD/DVD driver, if I remember right, which most if not all drives use now.

You can remove a filter with out issue, as long as its not being used by something. ie nero etc
Would have to reinstall the app for it to work again.

The DVD region is stored on the actual drive itself, thats why you can move the drive from one pc to another and it will still hold its region.

If you are still getting issue with the drive, have a read at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060 might help you some.

edit:
That 'driver' the .sys is used by a few companies, but iTunes, and a few norton products are the most popular, and is known to borke drives.

[Warhead]

the thing that bugged me the most when i had to deal with it..... its a full fledged driver, and exactly what does itunes etc.. need this extra driver for? why isnt the already associated driver good enough, when this thing is more damaging than most viruses. (this thing actually screwed up the way an lite-on cd-rw burner functioned that it burned out the motor). it also made a samsung dvd burner revert to PIO mode, because of so many read errors that windows required the controller to be reinstalled to allow it back to DMA

btw: get rid of the entire thing dougbob, its probably still loading to a degree, if all you removed was that one entry. search the registry for "GEARAspiWDM" and delete all the entries, then delete the file itself from the system32 folder for good measure. (just make sure you backup first, just in case something goes wrong, it is the windows registry after all) or go the safest route, uninstalling itunes, or whatever else piggybacked this thing in "should" remove it, itunes did it for me.

[mapes]

I think this is DRM crap?

[DougBob]

It was definelty one of the last iTunes updates that started the problem. Now that I removed the filters everything works fine, but iTunes is bitching anytime I start it. Like I care about that

I did of course have to reinstall any burner software. This drive is only a CD-RW/DVD-ROM.

[Apache Warrior]

You can uninstall Itunes.
Apache

[Sirex]

Apple possibly put it in there for the ability to make 'hard copies' of your music onto music cd, or to 'rip' music from your cd's.
I dont use IFumes so I would not know for sure, but I do know for sure they took a shortcut, and used pay for 'libs'.