so I ran into this issue of code 19 dvd driver error windows 7 second time now with a client. What happened was, in device manager in windows 7, you would see a yellow question mark next to the dvd device, and if you try to reinstall it, the system says best driver has been already installed for it. you get in this loop and it seems like there is no solution.
if you go to driver properties then you get a message: Windows can not start this device because its configuration information (in the registry) is incomplete or damaged (code 19).
I also noticed that there are a lot of morons on sites like About d0t k0m that suggest disabling the device and restarting computer, which of course doesn’t work. So its best not to read what people like that write at all. cs its worthless stuff and is only done by those authors to get backlinks to their sites supposedly for creating “valuable” content. valuable content without any value whatsoever.
so the first time it happened to me, when a customer brought a desktop computer. so I played around with the drive, even copied a cdrom.sys driver from another computer and still no luck. Then I took the drive out and connected it to my own desktop. it worked on mine. so I decided to put it back in to customer computer and it started working. I guess this was a coincidence so I didn’t investigate further.
This time a customer brought a laptop however. so I couldn’t readily swap it into another laptop due to design limitations of the drive. So I found the actual way to fix it instead.
so if you get this error, this is how to do it:
1. open the registry editor. go to Run box – type regedit and press enter.
2. go to folder HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
make sure its exactly the same as in example. there are several similar folders there, make sure number match identically. inside one of the values should clearly say cdrom
3. Delete UpperFilters and LowerFilter entries. sometimes only one may be present. so both need to be deleted.
4. restart your computer and see dvd drive install correctly this time!
congratulations!
Thanks for your posting on fixing the Code 19 error. I had spent an hour on the phone with HP Support, and they didn’t resolve the problem.
I do a lot of techie stuff but don’t do in-depth tasks like changing the registry. I did save the file in case it’s needed later, but the cd/DVD drive seems to be working now. It worked a few months ago, so I don’t understand why it stopped, but I guess it’s a moot point now.
Thanks so much for the great directions!
Hi,
Just had to write you to express my gratitude and thanks for your help in fixing my DVD/CD ROM drive. As you state I was getting an error about misconfigured data in the registry along with a code 19 error, precisely as you described, on a Windows 7 x64 Ultimate system.
The problem apparently came out of nowhere, it seems, possibly after installing some new imaging and editing software, or other software, updates or upgrades. I don’t know for sure or even when the problem occurred but previously all was fine. Then one day I went to use my DVD and to my surprise it was no longer listed or accessible, to my horror.
I tried various tricks in Device manager, disabling/enabling and uninstalling and reinstalling the DVD driver but no luck, nothing worked after hours of playing around. I gave up many hours later until I found your website on the Internet.
Following your instructions, I made the changes you talked about then restarted my computer, and there magically was my DVD drive, exactly as you said it would be. Awesome!
So a big thank you for your great article and instructions! Jerry
you’re welcome!