HP USB External DVDRW drive won't load on Windows 11

[Lou877]

I've recently purchased an HP external DVDRW drive to load my CDs through. When I plug it in, I get an error saying:

"A driver cannot load on this device. Driver: GEARAspiWDM.sys. A security setting is preventing this driver from loading. You'll need to adjust your settings to load this driver."

I've seen threads on deleting the file use safestart, which isn't relevant here as I need to load the driver. I've not found a solution to getting an optical drive to work on Windows 11 without changing a security setting, which seems like a bad move. Surely HP wouldn't make a DVD drive that doesn't work with Windows 11? I've tried a non-HP drive already with the same error, so hoped purchasing an official product would help, but I get the same error.

[Bill_To]

Greetings @Lou877 

Welcome to the HP Forum.

This error is most likely a W11 memory integrity error due to an outdated system driver. I've run into this problem using some older RGB software versions.

HP's drive and the other optical drive both need a newer driver. 

I would not know where to get this system driver if Windows Update can't provide one. Did you check the HP DVD drive's support site, if one exists, for any driver downloads?

You would have to turn off memory integrity in Windows Security>Device Security>Core Isolation to see if you can use the drive.

Regards

[Lou877]

Thank you for replying @Bill_To,

Yeah I have checked for drivers and can't find any on the website for the optical drive. The HP optical drive works fine on my friends macbook straight our the box, but not on my HP Windows laptop. Makes me think this is a standard driver that windows 11 does not support but other operating systems do. 

I was hoping there might be a solution without lowering the security standards of my computer but it seems like Windows have made the latest OS incompatible with optical drives...