XPS M1330 combo drive problem

Pete,

I wonder if you've been able to find an answer. I have a virtually identical problem - same laptop, same drive, similar symptoms. There's one thing I noticed that I hope may explain what's going on. When I burn about 3G or less onto a DVD, my XPS reads it just fine. However, increasing the size to around 3.9G results in a unreadable DVD. I am using another Dell laptop with an external Sony DVD burner to make the disks (using Nero); that machine can read the DVD perfectly well regardless of the size, it's the XPS that has the problem.

To summarize:

• The source folder has about 4GB worth of files in it (photos)
• Burning the entire folder onto a (data) DVD goes just fine, but results in a disk that my XPS cannot read, but my other Dell laptop can
• Burning less (I tried 2.8G and 1.5G) works (the XMP can read the disk).
• To make the DVDs, I am using Philips DVD-R blank disks (4.7G), Dell Latitude laptop with Sony DRX 840-U external DVD writer, and Nero.

To me, this makes very little sense; I wasn't able to find any limit on the size of the burned data, other than the capacity of the disk itself (which is definitely above 4G).

Having the same problem.  I've found with my system if I start it in safe mode it WILL read the disk with no problem at all.  Must be a software issue??? Has anyone had any luck solving this?

I had the same problem & solved it with this, from BlackRussian on NotebookReview.com:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=197770

NOTE: After removing these registry keys and rebooting, it may be necessary to reinstall any CD or DVD recording applications.

1) Close all open programs

2) Click on Start, Run, and type REGEDIT and press Enter

3) Click on the plus signs (+) next to the following folders

* HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
* SYSTEM
* CurrentControlSet
* Control
* Class
* {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

4) This folder is the DVD/CD-ROM Drive Class Description in the registry. Look for any of the following names in the right hand column.

* UpperFilters
* LowerFilters
* UpperFilters.bak
* LowerFilters.bak

5) If any of the above keys shown in step 4 are listed, right-click on them and choose Delete

6) After deleting the keys, close the Registry Editor

7) Reboot your computer

8) Open My Computer and check to see if your CD or DVD drives have returned. You may also want to open Device Manager and verify that the yellow exclamation and error code on the CD or DVD drive is gone.

Hi everyone,

I'm having the exact same issue as Pete above and I tried pretty much every solution I've found online including flashing the firmware, bios, uninstalling & reinstalling drivers, and even BlackRussian's deleting registry keys solution.

If anyone has any advice on what ACTUALLY WORKED for them, please contact me or respond to this thread.

Note: As far as system config, I have the same exact setup as Pete above (Vista Home Premium 32bit, etc)

thanks,

joel

Same problem... :emotion-6:

The UJ-857G DVD burner from Matshishta is a known piece of garbage. It was used by Apple first, and unfortunately Dell thought it would be good enough for the XPS m1330. If you want to see how bad the burner is ... there are hundreds being dumped on eBay daily.

I repair laptops, and currently have an XPS m1330 in with a CD/DVD drive problem. I've ordered 3 replacements off of eBay so far (UJ-857C and G) and all three have the same problem as the original.

Symptom: DVD drive shows up in BIOS and Vista (device manager and explorer), but it won't read any CDs/DVDs. To verify you have a dead drive, try this:

- Put a bootable CD/DVD into the drive (like a Windows XP setup/boot disk)

- Modify your BIOS to make sure it boots from CD first

If the drive works, then when you boot, the BIOS will startup the PC from the bootable disk. Unfortunately, for many Dell users, you will find that while the BIOS can see the DVD drive (only proving that the drive can say "hello" to the BIOS), your PC will not actually boot from the CD, since the drive is dead and cannot read or write DVDs.

So ... before you tear apart Vista, assuming that you have an OS problem, and modify the registry, Upper Filters, Lower Filters, etc ... check to make sure your DVD drive can simply read a CD when the BIOS asks it to.

Meanwhile, Dell might want to consider supporting it's users by qualifying another vendor ... someone who knows how to make CD/DVD drives.

Steve, it appears a lot of inferior parts are now being put in Dells. Dell used to be top of the line as far as I was concerned. Today i would not say the same. Just read all the problems from cd/dvd, blu ray, ticking of hard drives etc. and you will get the picture.

I wonder what it will take to get them back to the product they used to supply? The customer service is terrible now as well.

I specialize in laptop repair, and I do them all (Acre, Averatec, HP, IBM/Lenovo, Dell, etc.). I'll take a Dell any day, it's what I recommend to my customers. If you want pain, buy an HP. There laptops are garbage, and their customer service is non-existent. HP seems to go out of it's way to ignore and alienate it's customers ... whether it is on laptops, or on their printers.HP even ignores their business customers.

as sad as it may be, I had my dvd drive replaced by tech suppport 3 times until I got a working one.