CD and DVD not working with Windows 10

Question

I have an Area 51 from 2011 that came with Win 7Pro. I upgraded to Win 10 a few months ago and since then my optical drives are not working.

I contacted MS and they gave me a list, like the list for optical drives on this forum, to go through to try and get the drivers to engage with the drives. I ran the Dell Detection Diagnostic tool and it showed the drives worked by reading different types of disks. And the other day I was checking to see if the drivers were listed in the Start/Windows Settings/System/Apps and tried a disk and both drives were working.

Today I started my machine and retraced my steps but the drives would not work. One suggestion was to upgrade the BIOS from A10 (which the machine came with) to A11 (which is what is available now). Does anyone know if this would be a good thing to do and if so, is there a specific way to do this or is it a simple upgrade replacement?

Thanks for any info/direction.

Tesla1856 · Answer

I kinda doubt the BIOS update would fix it (if they were working in Windows-7) but who knows. Try not the brick/kill your motherboard.

No additional drivers are required for the optical drives themselves. Sometimes you can just delete them from Device Manager and reboot and they will re-detect on next boot due to Plug-and-Play.

However, IIRC ... the Area51-R1 has 6 HDD/SSD bays so they had to put another small controller on the motherboard to handle the opticals up front.

I think it's either JMicron or SIL . All your files are here:

Product support for Alienware Area 51

Actually, in Device Manager ... you should see the optical's controller and it might be in error or un-categorized. Just load the Microsoft driver from local Win-10 driver cache or online Windows-Update.

djholter · Answer

Tesla1856 thanks so much for the suggestions. I tried them all but unfortunately I was not able to get the drives to budge.
I did notice that on the Dell site you linked that all the drivers were for Win7 or lower and I'm not sure if that would have anything to do with it. I checked with the drives' manufacturer, PLDS, and they said to reload the drivers. Optimistically I tried it again but, no success.
I'm thinking I might have to reinstall Win7. Thoughts?
Thanks again Tesla1856!

Tesla1856 · Answer

Yes, you can try installing Windows-7. I suggest you disconnect existing HDD(s) and just pop-in a working spare HDD and do a little test.

Area51-R1 also has a really nice Alienware 32-bit Diagnostics v1382 program that runs outside Windows. I would think that tests optical drives.

I have other ideas, but I would what to know results of Alienware 32-bit Diagnostics first.

You say "drives don't budge" ...

1. Are they not getting power

2. Do they appear in BIOS?

3. Is optical's controller enabled in BIOS?

djholter · Answer

I'm waiting on the Win7..will have to download it, etc.

I did try the 32bit Diagnostic but couldn't get the bin opened. I ran through the process online but ultimately the file was declared corrupt. So I did the online diagnostic through Dell and the following are results for the CD/DVD and DVD/BluRay:

DVD-RW Drive

PLDS DVD+-RW DH-24AAS SCSI CdRom Device

Hardware Type Diagnostic Name Result

CD/DVD Device Tray Out Test Passed

CD/DVD Device Tray In Test Passed

CD/DVD Device CD Linear Seek Test Passed

CD/DVD Device CD Random Seek Test Passed

CD/DVD Device CD Funnel Seek Test Passed

CD/DVD Device CD Linear Read Compare Test Passed

CD/DVD Device CD Audio Test Passed

CD/DVD Device DVD Linear Seek Test Passed

CD/DVD Device DVD Random Seek Test Passed

CD/DVD Device DVD Funnel Seek Test Passed

CD/DVD Device DVD Linear Read Compare Test Passed

CD/DVD Device DVD-RAM Random Seek Test Canceled

CD/DVD Device DVD-RAM Funnel Seek Test Canceled

CD/DVD Device DVD-RAM Linear Seek Test Canceled

CD/DVD Device CD-R Read Write Test Passed

CD/DVD Device DVD+R Read Write Test Canceled

CD/DVD Device DVD-R Read Write Test Canceled

CD/DVD Device DVD+R DL Read Write Test Canceled

CD/DVD Device DVD-R DL Read Write Test Canceled

CD/DVD Device CD-RW Read Write Test Canceled

CD/DVD Device DVD+RW Read Write Test Canceled

CD/DVD Device DVD-RW Read Write Test Canceled

CD/DVD Device DRAM Test Passed

CD/DVD Device Flash ROM Test Passed

CD/DVD Device Main IC Test Passed

CD/DVD Device OPU Test Passed

CD/DVD Device Spindle Test Passed

BD-ROM Drive PLDS DVDRWBD DH-6E2S SCSI CdRom Device

Hardware Type Diagnostic Name Result

DVD/BluRay Device Tray In Test Passed

DVD/BluRay Device CD Linear Seek Test Passed

DVD/BluRay Device CD Random Seek Test Passed

DVD/BluRay Device CD Funnel Seek Test Passed

DVD/BluRay Device CD Linear Read Compare Test Passed

DVD/BluRay Device CD Audio Test Passed

DVD/BluRay Device DVD Linear Seek Test Failed

DVD/BluRay Device DVD Random Seek Test Passed

DVD/BluRay Device DVD Funnel Seek Test Passed

DVD/BluRay Device DVD Linear Read Compare Test Passed

DVD/BluRay Device DVD-RAM Random Seek Test Canceled

DVD/BluRay Device DVD-RAM Funnel Seek Test Canceled

DVD/BluRay Device Blu-ray Linear Seek Test Passed

DVD/BluRay Device Blu-ray Random Seek Test Passed

DVD/BluRay Device Blu-ray Funnel Seek Test Passed

DVD/BluRay Device Blu-ray Linear Read Compare Test Passed

DVD/BluRay Device CD-R Read Write Test Canceled

DVD/BluRay Device DVD+R Read Write Test Canceled

DVD/BluRay Device DVD-R Read Write Test Canceled

DVD/BluRay Device DVD+R DL Read Write Test Canceled

DVD/BluRay Device DVD-R DL Read Write Test Canceled

DVD/BluRay Device CD-RW Read Write Test Canceled

DVD/BluRay Device DVD+RW Read Write Test Canceled

DVD/BluRay Device DVD-RW Read Write Test Canceled

DVD/BluRay Device Tray Out Test Failed

DVD/BluRay Device DRAM Test Passed

DVD/BluRay Device Flash ROM Test Passed

DVD/BluRay Device Main IC Test Passed

DVD/BluRay Device OPU Test Passed

DVD/BluRay Device Spindle Test Passed

DVD/BluRay Device DVD-RAM Linear Seek Test Incorrect Media

The canceled tests were ones I didn't have media for and I'm not sure why there were tray test failures...it was working fine. And with the audio tests it's where the drives spun up and worked just fine.

BTW, with the drives not budging I only meant a disk would go in and a light would blink a few times but it wouldn't spin up. It's like it was trying to do it but wouldn't. Except in the diagnostic tests.

I hope some of this helps give you a picture of what's going on.

Thanks Tesla1856 for all of your help.

Cheers!

Tesla1856 · Answer

Hard to say ... I don't use that online testing software. The Diags software I suggested is better.

Optical drives do fail after years (sometimes just of non-use) or dirty lasers. You can test them in another machine or with USB-Tester.

Maybe a SATA cabling problem?

Maybe a driver problem. If you want, you can upload a pic of relevant area of Device Manager. You often talk about "drivers" but you never talk about specific ones. Pretty vague ... Not sure which ones you are loading. Someone with an actual Area51-R1 (rare nowdays) might have to help you.

Finally, it could just be a bad motherboard. Unlikely for these symptoms, but who knows.

djholter · Answer

Thanks Tesla1856 for the reply.

I'll check to see if there are any errors on the motherboard or the SATA.

I called the drive manufacturer and they suggested I call Dell support.

So I'm going to do that.

The two drives are: YD12WIN.EXE for the PLDS DVD+-RW DH-24AAS drive

and

7D12WIN.EXE for the PLDS DVDRWBD DH-6E2S drive

Thanks again Tesla1856!

Cheers

Tesla1856 · Answer

Those are firmware-flashers for the optical drives . They are NOT needed for normal operation. Windows supplies the "drivers" for the optical drives themselves.

As I previously posted, you only need the drivers for the SATA controllers that control the optical drives ... likely JMicron or SIL .

Tesla1856 · Answer

Yes ... if your Intel x58-chipset motherboard has SIL and/or JMicron SATA controllers, it would be better to use the Windows-10 (64bit) versions from Microsoft's Windows Update if available.

djholter · Answer

Howdy Tesla1856,Thanks for clarifying the difference of the files. They were downloads from the manufacturer so I thought they were the drivers. I am such an end user! As far as the SATA controllers. I remember this and I did go to the page you linked me to and downloaded the files. The JMicron went through the process but didn't seem to change anything. The SIL file my computer said was corrupt. Of course They're all recorded for my machine within Dell to be Win7Pro. Nothing is listed as Win10. You also said all the drivers come from Microsoft so I'll try the process again by deleting the drivers.Thanks again for all of your help and patience.Cheers!

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CD and DVD not working with Windows 10

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