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External cd drive not responding
I have a Dell G5 laptop (I am assuming that's inspiron and belongs in this forum but I honestly can't figure out what "inspiron" is or if my laptop is one?) and I have an external CD drive for it. However, when I plug it in the drive's light doesn't turn on or respond in any way and it won't eat the CDs.
I know this is a computer issue because I have two cd drives; they both work on my other computer and they're from different companies. I've tried both usb ports. The ports in general work because I can back up my phone just fine. I tried the boot menu. It said everything's good. I tried drivers, but my drivers for both devices are all up to date. My computer is fully up to date. The device shows up properly on the "my computer" screen and reads as fully functioning.
Do I need to buy a power usb hub??
Please help, I would like to listen to a CD.
Kflash08
3 Apprentice
3 Apprentice
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547 Posts
1
October 13th, 2020 19:00
You may want to try an external CD drive with a dedicated power source. Unfortunately, I'm not aware of any slim CD drives that offer this, though some come with a cable that utilizes a 2nd USB for additional power.
Unless you intend to carry the CD drive around with you, you may have to go with the heavier, bulkier enclosure that houses 5.25" drives. The upside of 5.25" drives is that they offer faster rotational speeds, where the slim drives are capped at 24x.
You can also try the Dell DW-316 drive. I use this with my Inspiron 3583 and have no issues with it.
fireberd
9 Legend
9 Legend
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33.3K Posts
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October 11th, 2020 07:00
Inspiron is the name of one line of Dell laptops, another is XPS, another Latitude, etc. The "G" line is basically an Inspiron that is made for gaming.
Two things to try.
1. Connect drive to PC.
2. Go to the device manager, the drive will either be listed under "DVD/CD-ROM Drives" or (if not listed in the DVD/CD section) it will most likely show up in the USB section as an unknown device. Wherever its shown, uninstall the drive (or unknown device). Then disconnect it from the PC and restart the PC, After it restarts, connect it and see if its working.
Yonah9
4 Posts
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October 11th, 2020 22:00
Thanks for the explanation of laptop types! I tried this and it did not work, sadly.
fireberd
9 Legend
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33.3K Posts
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October 12th, 2020 03:00
Was the drive listed in the Device manager (and where)?
Can you load a CD and display the contents with the File Explorer?
If you can display the drive and contents, it says its working and the problem is in the media player, or lack of one.
Yonah9
4 Posts
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October 12th, 2020 14:00
It was listed under "disk drives". The cd drive will not open for me to put a cd in so no, I cannot load a cd.
fireberd
9 Legend
9 Legend
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33.3K Posts
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October 13th, 2020 03:00
OK, I missed the part about no light. Not opening suggests the ports do not have enough power for the drive.
Why?? I don't see any specs on how much power the USB ports will provide. May have to use an external, self powered USB hub (one with its own power supply) to get enough power for the CD drive.
Yonah9
4 Posts
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January 26th, 2021 21:00
As suggested, I gave up and bought a Dell brand CD drive off the internet. It worked, so I'm assuming the problem was the off-brand drives I had.