Pavillion DV6815nr. DVD drive no longer recognized. cannot find driver. Device Manager = no help

[RHChld]

I'm running vista home premium 32 bit sp2.  The drive (model TS-L632) stopped working about a week ago with no seemingly related issues (i.e. crashes).

the device manager does not have it listed and does not acknowledge any change in hardware when scanned.

the drive IS getting power, will take a disc and spin up like normal but then, nothing, no autoplay pop-up, computer doesn't recognize the drive even exists.

Normal driver issue right?  the problem is, i cannot find any driver listed for any optical drive for my computer through HP Support and Drivers, or any other route for that matter.

ANYone have some ideas?  anyone have a driver download?  will i have to do a little regedit?

Thanks in advance.

[Vidya]

If the drive is recognized in BIOS, try the utility in the following weblink to resolve the problem:

http://support.microsoft.com/mats/cd_dvd_drive_problems/en-us

If it is not recognized in BIOS, then it is a hardware problem and the drive needs to be replaced.

[RHChld]

The drive is listed in BIOS F.2C  so I ran the Fix it utility. 

it ackowledged that the drive was not being recognized though it could not fix the problem. 

From there I went to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/982116/EN-US and removed lower filters from the registry. 

about to restart.  we'll see what happens from here.

[RHChld]

Okay, that still did not work.  Any other ideas?

am I missing something?  should the device be listed somewhere else besides the boot order in BIOS?  i feel like i scoured it and couldn't find any device listings beyond that one screen

[RHChld]

fix it says:  "drive is missing or disconnected"  do i need to buy a new one?

[Vidya]

You should not look for the boot order. Under boot order, please select ATAPI CD/DVD ROM Drive and look whether the Optical drive is detected or not. if not, you need to buy a new one.

[RHChld]

I did what you said Vidya.   the drive is listed and i could move it in the boot order.  I could not however, verify anything beyond that.   screenshots below.  What's the prognosis?  is the drive truly good and dead? Thank you again for your help.