CD/DVD problem after BIOS update

This does not sound like a BIOS problem.  Happening after the BIOS update was just coincidental.

The system is recognizing the drive and the system requires the BIOS to first recognize it.  POST (Power On Self Test) is not recognizing any problems.

This sounds more like a hardware drive failure.  

Thanks for your reply. Well since it happened immediately after the upgrade together with other minor issues, I am convinced it was the upgrade that has caused the problems. Not to mention all other CD/DVD drives I attach all have the same problem. Either way I would still like to restore the previous version if possible. Thanks for trying. 

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@Pteradactyl wrote:

Thanks for your reply. Well since it happened immediately after the upgrade together with other minor issues, I am convinced it was the upgrade that has caused the problems. Not to mention all other CD/DVD drives I attach all have the same problem. Either way I would still like to restore the previous version if possible. Thanks for trying. 

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Exactly what does that mean? Are these USB drives or are you physically swapping different optical drives inside the PC?

What version of BIOS did you have and what newer version did you install?

You might be able to do a BIOS Recovery using the BIOS Recovery Image File for a prior version. The BIOS_IMG.rcv file may be available on the page for that earlier version. You do this at your own risk...

I tried using several different USB drives all with the same result. They work on other machines. The current version is 3.12.1, the previous was 3.11.1,  3.12.1 being not downgradeable according to the website. Maybe I'll just replace the motherboard. Thanks for your replies.

Before you go to the extreme of replacing the motherboard (and you will need exact Dell model motherboard), do a hard CMOS memory (and BIOS) reset.

Power off the PC, disconnect the AC power cord. Press the power button for 10 seconds to drain any residual power.  Open the case and locate the CR2032 coin cell battery on the motherboard.  Remove the battery for at least 5 minutes.  Reinstall the battery, reconnect the AC power cord, power on the PC and see if it made a difference.

Ha ha I was one step ahead of you! Yes I did that twice already, and while things aren't perfect the cd drive is now working somewhat. As I said it's not perfect but I can get by for the moment. I really still believe it was the BIOS upgrade that caused it, as there are other minor issues. These are very minor and still ongoing but at least I am now up and running sort of normally. Thanks for your help. Chris from the Land of Elephants and Durian. 

@Pteradactyl   If I understand your post correctly, this sounds like a USB issue, not an optical drive issue. And in that case, you may want to try changing some Power plan settings:

Reboot PC and open Device Manager.  Expand list under USB. Double-click each USB entry and click its Power Management tab, if it has one. Uncheck the box "Allow PC to turn off...". Repeat for all USB entries. 

And while you're in Device Manager, on its toolbar, click View>Show hidden... Now look everywhere in DM for any "Unknown" device(s). Right-click any Unknown and uninstall. Then click Action>Scan for hardware changes.

Next, open the Windows Power & Sleep screen. Click Additional Power Settings. On next screen identify the active Power plan and click Change Plan Settings. On next screen, click Change Advanced Power Settings.

On that last screen, disable Hibernation, Hybrid Sleep, USB Selective Suspend, and PCI Express Link State Management. Save the changes to the Power plan and reboot.

Does that help?

Ok, I've done all that, everything still appears to work ok. If there is any major improvement, time will tell. Many thanks for your help. So, until something else goes wrong, farewell for now.

Glad to help.  Post back and let us know if the issues are all fixed or not...

Well, it somehow started working for a few hours but has returned to it's previous non-working state. I'm nearly ready to throw it out!

 The CD/DVD drive is recognizable  physically but refuses to read any disks, therefore no access. I have tried replacing the internal drive as well as many USB drives, but all have the same problem. These other drives work on other machines.

You mentioned removing the motherboard battery, but have you tried installing a fresh one?

Could this be a PSU issue so there isn't always enough power for the optical drives?

And try this too:

1. At desktop, open a CMD prompt window, Run as administrator
   
   
2. At the prompt, type in: chkdsk c: /r and press Enter
   Accept the offer to run chkdsk at next boot and reboot PC. chkdsk will run before Windows loads, so be patient. Read this to find the chkdsk log file after PC reboots to desktop.
   
   
3. Back at the desktop, open CMD prompt as in #1
   
   
4. At the prompt, type in: DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth and press Enter. Be sure to include a space in front of each / and note any error messages when that's done.
   
   
5. Assuming no "unfixed" errors in #2 or #4, at the CMD prompt as in #1, type in: sfc /scannow and press Enter. Be sure to include a space in front of the / and note any errors when that's done.
   
   
6. Assuming no "unfixed" errors anywhere, reboot PC and test optical drive(s) again.

EDIT: You say these drives work with other PCs. Are you using the exact same disks that don't work when these drives are connected to the Inspiron?

First, thanks for your persistence!  Completed all the previous tasks assigned with no errors or unfixed errors. (as for your edit...yes exactly the same disks every time). I have noted also that it will work once in maybe 100 tries. So I thought maybe if I replaced all the cables with new ones it might shed some light on this. Alas no! The same thing happens with different OS's loaded on different drives. For the moment I will just  see, as I have everything else pretty much working as it should. Don't want to tempt fate!

If I come across THE ANSWER you'll be the first to know! Anyway I'm going to give it a rest for now...let myself calm down and recover my senses as it were.

Again many thanks indeed for all the information you have offered me. It just may come in handy at some point in the future.

Cheers Chris.

Last questions...

Are you using the white SATA data port on motherboard for the ODD? Have you tried one of the black SATA data ports. (The blue one is for the boot drive.)

Good question. I have tried all 4 ports many times, mostly out of frustration, all with the same result.

I am sure we would both like a resolution to this, but sadly it isn't happening just yet. As I said if I find a cure you will be the first to know, after me of course!

I've switched to the Microsoft AHCI driver from the Intel driver (part of Intel Rapid Storage Technology) because of issues accessing my optical drive. (My issues were less severe than yours.) You can try switching and see if it has any effect.

• Open Device Manager and open "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers." .If you see "Intel ... SATA AHCI Controller" (or similar), continue...
• Double-click the device. In the Driver tab, click "Update Driver."
• Click "Browse my computer for drivers," then "Let me pick from a list of available drivers..."
• In the list, you should find the current driver and "Standard SATA AHCI Controller" (the Microsoft driver). Click the Standard driver and click Next.
• Reboot to start using the alternate driver.