T20 DVD turned in to a USB device (Help)

[catscam]

I have a T20 & have recently upgraded to XP & everything seemed to be working good with the CD/ DVD & computer except for a missing driver in Device Manager. When I did a Windows Update & it was a big update, the driver in Device Manager was fixed but now there is always a USB like "Safely Remove Hardware" icon in the control panel next to the volume.

But there is no USB plugged in & Safely remove shows my CD/ DVD, as a "Matshita DVD-Rom SR-8174" & when I Safely remove it my DVD disappears from Device Manager & My computer. I think this happened after I updated XP but can’t be sure, plus my DVD seems to be much more sensitive reading some DVD’s sense this happened. Any idea how I can get the DVD back to ware it was before the upgrade & not think it's a USB device?


Many thanks.

[rkawakami]

Windows doesn't think your CD/DVD drive is a USB device. It is merely allowing you to remove the drive without having to power down the system. When you click on the "Safely remove Matshita DVD-Rom... Drive(D: )" entry in the balloon popup, the light on the right-hand side hinge furthest to the right will go out. That's an indication that the drive can be removed. I've been swapping DVD writers today using this exact procedure. Also, if you ever plug in a PCMCIA flash card reader, you will see an entry in this same area. Like a USB thumb drive, Windows will consider a flash adapter as a removable drive and allow you to safely remove the "drive" from the system.

[catscam]

Thanks for clearing that up, what you mentioned crossed my mind. But because I don’t remember seeing it before I did the big upgrade I thought it must be a driver problem. But if the "Safely remove" should be there then that’s great. Although I have a HP laptop with a removable DVD & it doesn’t have the "Safely remove" icon so that’s a bit confusing.

[rkawakami]

There's a way to hide the icon. Google "safely remove icon system tray" for more details.