Dell 8W007-A01 CD-RW/DVD-ROM Not Working Properly

Question

Hi. I have a Dell Inspiron 9100 Laptop with Windows XP Home Ed. My Dell 8W007-A01 CD-RW/DVD-ROM recently went bad, so I bought a new one (exact same model). The new one did not come with any driver CDs or anything-just the drive. So I inserted the drive and it read it, and everything seems to work fine. However, now my computer intermittently just stops reading the drive. There is no icon in 'My Computer' for the drive, and it will not autoplay CDs or DVDs. Not even my burning software reads it. It just disappears. The only way to solve this problem is to manually take the drive out and put it back in. Than, after awhile it will disappear again and I have to do the same thing.   I've gone into the device manager and checked to make sure it works fine (when it is properly reading it) and everything looks great. I've tried updating the drivers, and it says there's nothing newer than what I have. So I think the Drive itself is working fine. Do I need to manually install any drivers? Do I need to configure something in the BIOS? Would it be a compatibility issue? (Although it shouldn't be because the previous drive I had of the same model worked fine). I haven't been able to find any drivers that I need to install, if that's the case. Your help on this issue would be greatly appreciated!

Skybird · Answer

There is only one driver for all optical drives and it is supplied by Windows.

The next time the drive disappears from My Computer, look in the Device Manager
and see if it shows there. While in the Device Manager, right-click the drive
and select Properties. Is there an Error Code.

If the drive is gone from the Device Manager, enter the Set-up and see if the
drive is there.

Spyderman720 · Answer

It seems like the problem might be linked to shutting down/restarting the computer. I think when I shutdown or restart, the drive is 'lost' so to speak, until I add it again.   I looked in the device manager when it disappeared, and it did not show up in the device manager.  Then I entered the add new hardware setup, and was able to add it that way. Then it showed up in my computer and in device manager (device manager said it was working fine-no errors). However, it seems like it just reads it temporarily, until I shutdown or restart. Then I have to add it again.

Skybird · Answer

The next time the drive disappears in the Device Manager, enter the Set-up and see if the drive is there.  Do that before you use New Hardware.

Spyderman720 · Answer

What do you mean by enter the setup? I assumed you meant the add new hardware wizard. I'm not sure what you're referring to.

Skybird · Answer

Set-up (BIOS) is where the configuration of your system is held before Windows
loads. To enter the Set-up, restart the computer and press F2 when the blue Dell
logo appears. In the Set-up, you want to find your drive and see if it is there,
then see of it is enabled.

If it does not show in the Device Manager, the Set-up is the next logical place to
check. If it is not in the Set-up, or if it is not enabled there, Windows will have
problems recognizing it.

Storage, Drives & Media

Dell 8W007-A01 CD-RW/DVD-ROM Not Working Properly

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