XPS 410 TSSTcorp DVD+-RW TS-H653A WON'T READ

Not sure what you mean TeeBoy?  Your post title says "Won't read", but then you say "DVD drive works fine".  Do you mean that it won't write?

I have a similar spec system to yours, and I've never had any success getting Vista to write DVD's directly (eg from a folder or Explorer window).  It's a disgrace that Microsoft shipped a product that still can't handle optical drives smoothly, but each version of Windows has alway had some particular area that is fundamentally rubbish (XP was a security nightmare, 98 couldn't handle powersave, etc), and although MS have now got Vista driver support where it should have been on release, the system is still flawed when trying to create optical disks - it seems to need to spend a million years formatting the disk, another million years trying to write, and usually falls down at the end of the process.  Abandon all hope of getting Vista to write optical disks.

I've had far fewer problems using the bundled Roxio software to create disks.  Not exactly the most user friendly of programs, but it works and you get used to the slightly quirky interface.  Even using Roxio you may have a media problem, and even with some famous Japanese branded media - personally I would only recommend Verbatim for disks.  Most makes can be persuaded to work, but often this means you have to delve in advanced settings to reduce the speed of writing.  For example I've got a stack of Mitsubishi DVD's bought years ago, that claim to write up to 8x, but they won't work at write speeds above 4x, and work much more reliably still at 1x or 2x write speeds.  In theory the drive and software can work out a decent write speed, but often this doesn't happen, and my version of Roxio defaults to a faster speed than a lot of media will support. 

If you can't get on with the bundled Roxio then you vould buy the full version (I don't see why you'd need to), buy the Nero equivalent (screenshots suggest a similarly odd interface), or you might try some of the free CD/DVD burner software like CDBurnerXP (claims to work for Vista and to write DVD's despite the name, and looks like it has a standard Windows interface), or Ashampoo (I tried this and didn't like it).

Regards

Led

Thanks for your response. Sorry for the confusion. I have two drives installed;

E: DVD-ROM (HL-DT-ST DVD-ROM GDRH10N); and

F: CD/DVD double layer RW (TSSTcorp DVD+-RW TS-H653A)

The DVD drive E: works fine; F: drive is visible/operable (open/close, etc.) but inserted discs are not recognized either on explorer or Roxio

Just wondering if it's my media. I've tried a number of different cds/dvds. Is there some simple diagnostics I can try or is this perhaps a known junk drive.

okay,

here's the deal. i have got the same problem (I think ). Dell Dimension C521 everytime i Boot Windows says it found new hardware - the TSST Corp TS-H653A DVD RW drive, it tries to install it and fails everytime, no drivers to be found on the system or the internet, the good part is that the drive itself works fine! READS AND WRITES both cd and dvd's, more; the device manger reports nothing! mind boggling! I have done firmware update and still no change, it wasn't always like that...

I think this problem started after I had to return my dell to service a burnt motherboard and cpu about a year ago... could that be an issue?!

this isn't anything major but i just want to get rid of the annoying message!!!!

any hints!?

Our DVD-CD drive is giving me an error code 39.  After uninstalling and reinstalling the device several times, I cannot get the drive to read CDs or DVDs.  I've tried updating the driver software, but get a message I have the latest driver.  Is it time to replace the hardware?  Alya1