Laptop no longer recognising my Samsung Dvd Writer

[Maxine94]

Hi, I have a Samsung Portable DVD Writer Model SE-208 and I use this with my HP Envy laptop. It is Windows 8 with -
Processor: Intel Core i7-4700MQ CPU 2.40 GHz
RAM: 8 GB
System Type: 64-bit operating system

I bought both last year at the same time and had no problems, but I haven't used the DVD Writer it in a few months. A few days ago I plugged it into my laptop Via the USB to play a DVD but my laptop wasn't recognising the DVD Writer (there was nothing coming up in My Computer like there usually is). I checked in Device Manager and noticed that under DVD/CD-ROM DRIVES there is a warning/error sign next to TSSTcorp CDDVDW SE-208DB USB Device. When I click on it, under device status it says:
'Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Code 39)
{Unable to Load Device Driver}
%hs device driver could not be loaded.
Error Status was 0x%x'

I have tried uninstalling the driver as my DVD Writer reinstalls the driver by itself when you first plug it in, however this hasn't worked either as it's still coming up with an error. I have tried searching in google and can't seem to find a solution. I've tried to find the driver online but not had luck in finding one that works, and i've also tried downloading software which searches through my computer for missing/corrupt or out of date drivers (to fix and replace them) but that isn't picking this up.

I don't know a lot about this sort of thing and I'm not sure how to go about fixing it. I have been considering restoring my laptop to a slightly earlier time in case there was maybe an update which has made my DVD Writer incompatible if that is possible. I appreciate any suggestions you may have. Thanks

 

[Darkbreeze]

Try right clicking on the device in device manager, with the unit connected, and selecting "uninstall device". Once complete, right click on the device again and select "update driver software" and then "update automatically". Reboot if the installation completes successfully. If the driver update fails, we can try other methods such as manually installing the most recent driver, but we'll need the exact model number as there are several sub-models of SE-208 and they all indicate different driver versions.