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External Optical Drive??
Good morning ... Just bought a brand new Dell XPS 7760 27" All-In-One. These machines come with NO built-in optical drive. So, I purchased the Dell DW316 External Optical Drive to use for playback of CDs and DVDs as well as to install devices (such as a printer) by way of the Installation Discs. Two weeks into this new desktop PC and I still cannot get a DVD to play. I've tried everything I can think of, to no avail. I did manage to get an audio CD to play but have had ZERO luck getting a DVD to play. Am extremely frustrated with this and ready to send this whole thing back to Dell. I was under the impression that the Dell DW316 External Optical Drive was a "plug and play" device and thought I would be able to play CDs and DVDs via this device. Apparently I was wrong.
That brings me to this question ... does ANYONE know how to get this Dell External Optical Drive (DW316) to work?? I did get it to play a CD (audio disc) but NOT DVDs. I am losing my patience with this machine.
Many thanks for your help in advance. ... CWFan2
DELL-Infant R
331 Posts
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March 12th, 2017 09:00
Hi CWFan2,
Thank you for writing to the Dell Community Forum.
Could you please test the optical with a bootable DVD and test it outside the OS. If it does not read and the disc works fine on other system, there could be a problem with the external optical drive itself and needs to be replaced. Also request you to please test this optical drive on another system and check if it works fine.
Kindly get back if there are any further queries.
For me to better assist in troubleshooting, please click my DELL-username and send me a Private Message with the Dell Service Tag number and your email address.
rdunnill
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March 12th, 2017 10:00
It's possible that DVD video disks won't play because there is no playback software. The MPEG-2 codec by DVD-V requires a royalty payment, and with Windows versions greater than 7, Microsoft no longer includes one.
Have you tried downloading and installing a trial version of PowerDVD? You won't need the Ultra edition, because you don't have a Blu-ray drive.
speedstep
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March 18th, 2017 05:00
If you go that route I HIGHLY RECOMMEND getting a boxed version instead of a download.
https://www.cyberlink.com/downloads/trials/powerdvd-ultra/download_en_US.html
HunterX6
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March 26th, 2017 09:00
You could try VLC media player. Its free and supports many codecs and video formats including dvds.
rdunnill
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March 26th, 2017 20:00
The OP double-posted this. He did end up using VLC and that answered his question.