Problem with CD/DVD Drive

Question

Hi Everyone

First time post, so hopefully someone can help!

I have a Inspiron 6400 laptop -2years old-. Recently it blue screened (nothing new there...) but when I went to use the DVD drive, I noticed that everytime a blank DVD (+ or -) was put in, Windows would only recognise it as a blank CD. When I went to burn some videos over 700mb, the program I was using (Convert X To DVD) told me that I needed to put a Blank DVD in the drive. So every program is now recognising Blank DVD's as CD's as its as frustrating as . DVDs with software or videos already on are recognised and play fine. I've used the support.dell.com section and updated the firmware but to no luck.

Have spoke to the 'wonderful' people at Dell Tech Support who could recommend without any further questioning that a full re-master was needed. I dont believe that as it could surely only be a software issue, but I have 30GB worth of stuff that I dont want to lose without having to re-master, so can anyone help me? Any suggestions as to what is needed or why the drive has suddenly stopped recognising blank DVD's???

Thanks in advance for any suggestions

Scott

gdsprod · Answer

Hi,

this is my first post, and I think this forum could be very informative.

I have an inspiron 6400 approx 2 years old, and it has blue screened before, and my dvd will not write, it plays dvds ok but will not wirte to them,

the crazy thing is that I have attempetd to write to dvd before the blue screen, and I doubt the drive at fault from new.....

I don't know what to do, I have an external HD which I backed everything to so no worries on re formatting but I have not done it on a laptop before,

cheers chaps

G

Hanspuppa · Answer

Hello sfbomb, It is quite possible that the DVD laser in the drive itself has failed. If so, it would only read CDs.

This is a rather common problem with CD\DVD burners, even at the age of your system.

The Dell CD\DVD drives are fairly easy to change out.

If I had that much data I could not afford to loose I would consider a backup strategy.

You should already have one in place, because at some point, you will need your backed up files.

The only way to verify a failed DVD drive would be to replace it.

You would not need to do a Dell Recovery Restore if the drive needs to be replaced.

Hope this helps.

Hanspuppa · Answer

Hello gdsprod, Glad to have you here.

If you want to put your system back to the point when it was shipped, you could perform a Dell Recovery Restore, if your system is set up for one. You can chack this by viewing the hard drives on the system.

If there is a Restore partition, it will show as D: and will be about 10-15 GBs in capacity.

To restore the system, immediately when booting the system, press ctrl and F11 at the same time and you should enter the Dell Recovery Restore Utility.

This will take about 10-15 minutes and the system should be put back exactly as it was shipped.

When back to the desktop, you can then reload any files on install any programs you have backed up.

This may or maynot resolve your issue, but it will clean up the system from any corrupted or unwanted software.

Hope this helps.

gdsprod · Answer

Hi Hanspuppa, thank you for the great advice, I will be having a go at that once I have found all my software discs.   cheers G

sfbomb · Answer

Hi Hanspuppa.

Thanks for the tip re my laser might be faulty.

I spoke to Dell Tech Support again today who assured me that because we had completed the necessary tests, this proved the Drive was in perfect working order and thus a re-master was the only way forward. I suggested that if it seems like a software issue, why does everything have to be remastered but they couldnt give a full answer.

Seems like the 'if in doubt, re-master' option.

Frustrating but am determined to get another opinion as I dont believe this will solve the problem (and actually causes more of a issue due to the time needed to re-master and reinstall everything) and that your advice was probably more correct. Perhaps they just want to avoid paying any expense?

Thanks

Scott

New to Dell Community

Problem with CD/DVD Drive

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