CD/DVD drives won't spin up

Question

I have 2 CD/DVD drives on my Dimension 8300. One came with the computer and the other is an aftermarket LG DVD R-/R+/RAM drive.

A while ago I noticed that if my computer is on for a little while and I stick in a DVD or CD it will not spin up. It happens in both drives (I cannot quantify what "a little while is").

If I reboot the computer then I have no problems, both drives work flawlessly, and as long as I'm using the drives they seem to be happy.

I checked in the control panel under hardware device manager and it seems that both drives are working properly. There are no error messages or funny symbols there.

I've tried uninstalling both devices and upon re-boot they automatically re-install, but the problem still persists.

I've tried talking with tech support but they were pretty much baffled, and because after a re-boot the drives work it took several days of them suggesting something and re-booting then me checking the next day to see if the problem was still there. Tech support was not able to help me.

Has anyone seen anything like this? Can anyone suggest anything to me? I'm at my wits end, and any time I want to use a CD or DVD I have to think twice to make sure I really want to becuase inevitably I'll have to re-boot to get the thing to work.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Predator · Answer

Hi Volan,Something to check, Dell ships their systems using the Cable Select Feature, the jumper (small plastic shunt) is set on CS, CSEL or CSL and location on the cable determines Master / Slave, so the jumper on the after market drive should be set to Cable Select.Also, enter the BIOS and verify that the Secondary IDE channel is set on 'Auto'.Click on the CD/RW link in my post and scroll to Section 11, articles 1 & 2.Lastly I would open the case and re-seat the IDE cable going from the motherboard to the back of each drive.Best Regards God, grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway, the good fortune to run into the ones I do and the eyesight to tell thedifference. CD/RW Link

volan · Answer

Hi there;

Thanks for your suggestions. I know it's been a while, but I was just now able to try your suggestions. I tried all your suggestions but unfortunately my drives still don't work. On the up side they are spinning-up and when I put in a CD the icons change from DVD-drive to CD-drive, but when I click on the icon I get a message saying that I need to insert a CD into the drive.

Both drives are on the same IDE cable and the after market LG drive that I installed is set to CSEL. I cleared the NVRAM and I re-set the BIOS (as per your suggestions). I even re-seated the drives and all IDE connections in the box.

As for the BIOS I must have a different bios that you're mentioning. I have bios A06 for Dell Dimension 8300. There is no secondary IDE channel option. Here are the options that I'm presented with in the BIOS.

Drive Configuration, Boot Sequence, Memory INformation, CPU INformation, Integrated Devices (LegacySelect Options), Power System, System Security, and a couple more.

I went into Drive Configuration and I was presented with the following:

Diskette Drive A - 3.5inch 1.44MB

SATA Primary Drive - off

SATA Secondary drive - off

Primary Master - Hard Drive

Primary Slave - Hard Drive

Secondary Master Drive - CD-ROM

Secondary Slave Drive - CD-ROM

IDE Drive UDMA - ON.

Do you have any other suggestions? Anything would be appreciated.

Regards.

Storage, Drives & Media

CD/DVD drives won't spin up

Was this post helpful?