DVD+RW Non Reading Disks

It is possible that it may be failing.  Check this by runnig the
Dell Diagnostics on the drive if it is on your hard drive.

Press F12 at startup while the blue Dell shows on the screen.  This
will enter the boot menu.  Choose Utility Partition or Diagnostics.
Run the Custom Test on the drive and have a data CD (not music CD)
ready for the test.

I ran the tests at startup as you suggested and it ran through a few tests before declaring it didn't have any diagnostics.  It said I should boot from the "Drivers and Diagnostics" cd and run the test there.  Of course, when I tried to boot from the cd/dvd it did nothing for about 20 seconds, then just went into Windows, presumably because my drive was not working.

I take it this is enough to throw in the towel?

The Diagnostics are very good to determine the status of the drive,
but as you say, it will be difficult to run them if the drive will
not read the disc.  However, you might be able to run the Diagnostics
from your hard drive by downloading here ............

<ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>

The symptoms you present are indicative of a failed drive, but it is 

nice to know for sure.

Thanks for all of the help skybird.  I downloaded the suggested file and unzipped it to my hard drive.  However, when I try to run the DOS program (DELLDIAG) I get the following error:

"Abnormal program termination: Memory protection fault"

I did some further testing on different types of discs and I've discovered something peculiar:  No cds (data and music) are being read, but all DVDs are.

I ran across this thread which seems to suggest that it is a known issue with these drives and that I should buy a new one.

This kind of failure is common to any optical drive.  I suspect the CD laser
has failed.  There are two lasers: one for CDs and one for DVDs.  It is probably
time to replace the drive.

Makes sense.

I appreciate all of the help,

Brad

I am having a similar issue, actually, though I don't know if its a failed optical eye or not.  Maybe you all could help,

My DVDrw drive won't read dvds, but will read CDs.  When I put a dvd in, there's no autorun, nothing.  Everything in windows says the disc drive is empty.  I thought it may of been a driver issue, so I used the link dell had to the Optiarc Drive Firmware Flash Utlity, no luck.  Same problem.  Which makes me think it could be a physical issue, such as a bad optic eye.

Curious thing is, when I put up my computer, I get a screen that says that my ATA AHCI BIOS only supports Hard and CDrom drives.  This isn't a new screen, its just the start up screen that has always been there (lots of text on it) that happens before Windows itself boots up (sorry I'm not computer savy so I don't know exactly what the screen is called.)  Could that mean that my DVD drive will only read CDs and not DVDs?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

Heath

The diagnostic gave me these results...

Drive 0 WBC - pass (hard drive)

Drive 1 _NEC dvd+/- rw nd 3650a - diagnostic not supported

Now, I don't know if that means it failed the diagnostic and the eye is dead or that, for whatever reason, my computer simply won't run a diagnostic on it.  I don't know.

TDCHealth,

It sounds like the DVD laser has failed.  You did not mention your
system model, but the Diagnostics may be on your drive.  Press F12
at startup while the blue Dell is on the screen.  This will take you
to the boot menu where the Utility Partition or Diagnostics will be
a choice.  Run the Custom Test for the drive and have a data DVD (not
movie DVD) ready for the read test.

If the Diagnostics cannot read the data DVD, then you will have the
answer: a failed drive (DVD laser)

Oh, yeah, I have a Dell XPS 410 running windows XP.  I will immediately try that diagnostic.  Thanks.

I do not know why the Diagnostics will not run on that drive, but
i do suspect it is failed.