If you knew this computer you wouldn't say that.... it's had software & driver quirks from day one. It seriously has a mind of it's own, and HP was absolutely no help...But its far far far more common for the drive to act up/go crazy then anything on the board/pc itself to cause it to go crazy... (aside from the driver)
If my memory serves me, the reason the drivers are disappearing is because the drive is no longer physically connected, once it makes a connection the drivers pop back up in the device manager. Hence why I suggest cleaning the connectors. Can anyone verify my theory?
My wife's computer HP DV2842se
CD/DVD drive not recognized, sometimes it's totally unresponsive, other times it spins up to full RPM and won't stop, even when the tray is opened.
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If the drive doesnt stop spinning when open I would think its a drive problem not a driver problem but I could be wrong. When the drive is open something inside the drive should tell it to stop spinning. A replacement drive for a laptop isnt that much money. Like someone else said try newegg