Optical Drive on way out or another problem?

[Apache]

Well, as if I needed much more prompting to replace my Dell desktop I tried to install CMSF (Paradox retail disc) today and, as has happened with a few CDs on and off of late, I put the CD in the drive, the green read light comes on and after a few seconds it just sits there dormant.

I tried a driver check but the Dell driver updater just says same or older firmware. I tried deleting the device and re-booting but no joy. The optical drive is a HL DT ST GWA-4163B and I have to say I've never been that impressed with it's performance. My driver version is 5.1.2535.0 from 7/1/2001!! Regardless of what I try though I cannot seem to get a newer one.

Luckily my wife has a netbook with an external USB DVD drive which I used and that worked fine. I later put the Dell driver CD into the GWA and that worked fine???

So I have no idea what the problem is. It just seems temperamental, or maybe it just doesn't read some discs now. When CMSF was in the drive I even tried to get to it via Explorer but it just showed up as a drive with no CD in???

Not sure any driver updates/options will fix this so, short of trying a cleaning CD through it, or replacing the DVD writer complete I think the new PC plans will be brought forward. It WILL NOT however be a Dell!!!!

[Jonny(FGM)]

Is the drive showing in your my computer section?

If not try this

Press the start button and in the search bar at the bottom of the start menu type “regedit”

Click on “regedit.exe” in the search results and then give permission when windows asks you to open the registry editor.

On the tree view in the left side of the registry editor find “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE” and maximise this

The in HKEY LOCAL MACHINE maximise SYSTEM

in SYSTEM maximise CurrentControlSet

In CurrentControlSet maximise Control

in Control Maximise Class

In the class tree their should be a list of keys with very long names (example: {0475BB51-5A02-4EE0-B36C-29040FAD2650}) click on the first one under Class and look to the right panel their should be information about that key and you need see if that key says “CD/DVD drives”, keep checking each key in the class tree until you find that.

Now once you have found the CD/DVD drives key in the right panel their should be upper-filters and lower-filters, delete these (note: there might be two lower and upper filters with the second set having a .bak extension make sure you don’t delete these if you do). once you have deleted these close the registry editor and re-boot.

Your drive should now be visible as windows makes a new set of lower and upper filters for the CD/DVD drives registry key.

(Disclaimer: Doing something wrong in the registry editor can have drastic consequences, be careful with following the instructions and make a restore point before you do it)

If it does show in your my computer how long has it been playing up for? More than a month? If its less than a month might be worth doing a system restore back to when it was last working ok

[Apache]

Hi. Yes it shows up when it chooses to read a CD. Then I have no problem. Other times I put a CD in and zip happens??

I'll have a look at the above tomorrow. I may be barking up the wrong tree on the driver front, it may just be a rubbish or worn out drive. Seems odd that some CDs it runs, some it doesn't.

[Apache]

Well I have a feeling the drive may be on the way out. If it was a system/driver issue I can't see why it would recognise some CDs and not others? Whenever there is a CD in there the drive shows up on 'My Computer' or 'W/Explorer'. It's just that in some cases the CD shows in the drive (the instances where it has detected it and 'spun up') and in others it just shows as empty (e.g. when CMSF or indeed NATO, which I DLd and burned to CD on a Mac Book, is in there). I tried the Dell Diagnostics/Driver CD that came with the machine after this and it spun up fine. Both the CMSF and NATO CDs showed up fine using a USB external CD drive too.

It strikes me that the drive is getting really fickle about what it reads and the only explanation I can think of is that it's on the way out. I could look at a cleaning CD I suppose but wonder if there's any point given that it read the diagnostics CD fine.

So, two options, buy install another R/W CD Drive (but which I wonder - I am UK based and the machine is a Dell XPS 600) or bring forward the replacement of the machine from Spring. If I do that it will NOT have an LG DVD optical R/W drive and almost certainly will NOT be a Dell!!!! With 2GB of RAM and a GeForce 7800 graphics card it's getting on I suppose. IIRC it's about 5 years old now.