DVD drive causes hang - Windows 10

[colmac]

Whenever I connect my SATA DVD drive, Windows (or at least some of it) seems to hang.

BIOS sees the drive (currently on SATA 4 out of 6). Windows (win 10 64 bit) File Explorer sees the drive, and allocates (currently) letter G. But Disk Management & Device Manager will not run. Overall, the PC seems to slow down massively.

If I disconnect the drive (physically) all returns to normal.

I have tried different SATA ports, different cables. I eventually decided the drive must be faulty, and yesterday I ordered a new ASUS drive from Amazon. I connected it and have the same problem.

I had sort of assumed that as the drive was causing problems that accessing it would be an issue. Today however I inserted a disk, the drive spun up to speed, and I can play for example, video files. I can also copy files from the dvd drive.

Task Manager also will not start, so I cannot see if Disk Management & Device Manager are actually running (albeit very slowly).

Google seems to identify masses of similar reports but as far as I can see, most seem to suggest a driver issue. As I'm using WIn 10, the inbuilt drivers should be OK for an ASUS drive. But as I said I cannot even check what drivers are being used.

The other suggestion is a clean boot. I've tried this without success.

Any suggestions as to what may be causing the issue?

Thanks

[JoeP]

Have you checked for BIOS and/or firmware updates for the PC & DVD drives?

Which Windows 10 version are you running?

[colmac]

The BIos is dated 2016. Most advice I've read is not to update BIOS, so I'm not overkeen to look at that. As far as the DVD drive is concerned, its a brand new drive from a major manufacturer. The built in driver should be adequate for that. But in any event I can't access Device manager to check what driver is installed to even look at updating.

I'm on Win 10, 64 Version 1803 (Build 17134.228)

[JoeP]

Well, you should at least check the PC vendor site for BIOS updates. They should tell you what is updated. Check the DVD vendor site too. It does not matter that it is new. It matters when they last updated the firmware. I'm not talking about Windows drivers. I agree that the basic Windows drivers should be adequate.

Have you used Device Manager and displayed hidden devices and then removed all the DVD drives? Re-boot and let Windows re-discover the drive.

[colmac]

I've already said in both posts that I cannot open Device Manager to check.

[Argus]

What Joe suggests is that: you open the Device Manager when the DVD drive isn't connected. You then use the "Show hidden devices", on the View menu, to show devices not present. The OS will remember things such as portable devices so that it doesn't have to configure them every time they are connected. Icons for hidden devices, "ghosted devices", will be dimmed.

[colmac]

My apologies if I miss-read that.

I've done that and deleted the device then re-botted. No change. Also checked the driver and the report is that best driver is already installed.

I also looked at the ASUS site, they do not even offer a driver there.

[viking33]

My apologies if I miss-read that.

I've done that and deleted the device then re-botted. No change. Also checked the driver and the report is that best driver is already installed.

I also looked at the ASUS site, they do not even offer a driver there.

This talk of BIOS updates and changes reminds me ( painfully ) of the huge problem I had with ASUS BIOS settings and options. ASUS now uses UEFI BIOS in that 2016 version and getting the correct settings was a real challenge. ASUS does not have a User Friendly BIOS and there a number of "hidden" options to use for UEFI and Legacy type hardware.
AS you mentioned, ASUS techs were no help and their suggestions ranged form useless to absolutly useless.
Boot into the BIOS settings again and take a hard look at hte Advanced options as Jay mentioned. I finally did get it booting and seeing all hardware properly after much frustration.

[colmac]

Boot into the BIOS settings again and take a hard look at the Advanced options

Thanks I'll have another look


Colin