HL-DT-ST DVD +- RW GH82N

Hi zephed666,

Delete upper filter and lower filters.

Follow below steps to delete upper and lower filters.

1. Click Star, and then click All Programs.

1. Click Accessories, and then click Run.
2. Type regedit, and then click OK. If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Allow.
3. In the navigation pane, locate and then click the following registry sub key:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
4. In the right pane, click Upper Filters.
   
   Note: You may also see an UpperFilters.bak registry entry. You do not have to remove that entry. Click Upper Filters only. If you do not see the Upper Filters registry entry, you still might have to remove the Lower Filters registry entry. To do this, go to step 8.
5. On the Edit menu, click Delete.
6. When you are prompted to confirm the deletion, click Yes.
7. In the right pane, click Lower Filters.
   
   Note: If you do not see the Lower Filters registry entry, unfortunately this content cannot help you any further. Go to the "Next Steps" section for information about how you can find more solutions or more help on the Microsoft Web site.
8. On the Edit menu, click Delete.
9. When you are prompted to confirm the deletion, click yes.
10. Exit Registry Editor.
11. Restart the computer.

If upper filters and lower filters are still missing you can go ahead and run the Microsoft fixit.

I have provided a link to run Microsoft Fixit: 

http://support.microsoft.com/fixit/

if the above steps would not work ,I recommend reseating the DVD drive.

I have provided a link below to reseat DVD drive:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xps8500/en/om/om_en.pdf

From the above link, click on Optical drive and try reseating the optical drive.

Please let me know if you have any other queries.

Removing the upper and lower filters is only if there are error codes associated with the DVD drive.   I do not have that problem.

Microsoft Fixit will not help with this problem.

Reseating the drive did not help.

Is the drive defective or is this normal operation?

The high speed spin is not usually normal.  Does this happen with all inserted discs?  Test the drive.  The Diagnostics should be on your hard 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 CD or DVD (not music CD or movie DVD) in the drive for the read test.

I'll have to check that tonight.  I'll keep you posted...