Studio XPS 8100, cannot read or write cd's

Question

OK. I give up. I need help. My ancient Studio XPS 8100 is in trouble one again. Suddenly I cannot read or write music cd's in either drive. DVD's work flawlessly. I have followed numerous suggestions. I uninstalled both drives and let them reinstall drivers. I tried to update the drivers, but they will not because they are shown to be up to date. I changed the registry by deleting the low filter and then added a control key. In the disk management feature, both drives are indicated. In device manager there are no error warnings. All updates have been applied. Neither Roxxio nor Windows Media Player can find the drives. They will show up in File Manager if a DVD is loaded. I went into the BIOS and both drives are there and enabled. I turned on the onboard audio controller on the motherboard and it had no effect. It seemed like it should be something simple, but nothing has worked so far. Also, my restore points got wiped out so there is no going back. The OS is Windows 7. So, what is left to try? I would appreciate any help.

fireberd · Answer

Roxio is a suspect, its been known to cause varied problems. Whether its the problem? Only way to know is uninstall Roxio. If you want (and should) make a full drive backup to a separate drive with a disc image program such as the free (and popular) Macrium Reflect. After making the backup (so you can recover Roxio if it is not the problem) uninstall Roxio completely, RESTART the PC (don't skip this step) and then install another CD/DVD burner program such as the free CDBurnerXP and use that. CDBurnerXP has a sort of Roxio feel to it. CDBurnerXP would sound like its for XP but it compatible with all OS' from XP to Windows 10.

A comment about backups, if you are not making them. Backups are not for IF they are ever needed but for WHEN they are needed.

Macrium Reflect Free

CDBurnerXP

Will The Edge · Answer

Thanks for the reply. Actually I do have a recent Acronis full backup on an external drive, but not sure if that goes back far enough. I also have Nero which can't read or write to the drive. But I can remove Roxio and see what happens. I have been using it lately to put header info into various music files. Maybe it wacked something up.

Will The Edge · Answer

Roxio removal did not help. Still cannot see music disk in drive. Oh well.... next....

RoHe · Answer

If I understand correctly, the CD and DVD drives are physically separate drives, correct?

How did you update the drivers? Typically, optical drive drivers are built into Windows.

While unlikely both CD lasers failed at the same time. Put a data CD, not a music or video CD in each drive and close the drawers. Now reboot and immediately press F12. Look for option to run diagnostics and run them, especially the optical drive tests. Copy error messages, if any.

You might try resetting BIOS:

Reboot and immediately press F2 to open BIOS setup
Copy all current settings to be safe
Power off, unplug and press/hold power button for ~15 sec
Open case and remove motherboard battery. Check Service Manual for details
Press/hold power button for ~30 sec
Reinstall battery (Time for a fresh CR2032 3-volt coin cell?)
Close case and connect only mouse, monitor and keyboard
Reboot

Do the drives work correctly now?

Will The Edge · Answer

No, sorry, I was a bit vague on the drives. They are cd/dvd drives - the TSST variety. Neither will read data CD's either. The drivers applied are the Windows drivers. I uninstalled both drives and let Windows detect the 'new' hardware when I rebooted. I tried to install updated drivers from Dell, but the utility hangs up. I will try your suggestions after our company leaves and see if any of that does the job. Thanks for your help.

RoHe · Answer

I'm still confused... Does one drive only read CDs, and is the other a DVD drive? (DVD drives read both CDs and DVDs.) Or are they both DVD drives? Dell doesn't offer drivers for CD or DVD drives, only firmware updates which are stored on a chip in the optical drive, and are not part of Windows. So what 'drivers' did you try to install? If you tried to install the wrong firmware, the apps should freeze and save you from yourself, and from destroying the drive.  What app are you using to open data files on these CDs? If clearing BIOS and scanning for malware doesn't help, you may need to boot from your Dell Win 7 Reinstallation Disk, assuming you have it, and try to repair Windows. But back up all your personal files on external media first, to be safe!

Will The Edge · Answer

Discussing my computer problems is like speaking Spanish, I don't do either very well because I am not highly skilled at either. OK, yes then, they are both identical DVD drives and they both read DVD's and will no longer read CD's. And of course you are correct the update was only a firmware update which Dell indicated was for my computer. When I extracted those files and tried to update, the app hung up. The drivers for those optical drives are the ones installed by Windows (driver date 2006). They have worked for several years so probably are still actually OK.

I simply tried to open the data CD's with the file manager, but they could not be seen.

My previous hobby was working with music on my Dell computer. Now my hobby is this Dell computer itself. I appreciate your suggestions and will continue to work through them.

RoHe · Answer

PCs are just little boxes into which you pour time! :Stickouttongue:

If the CD lasers in both DVD drives died at the same time, that would be quite accurate "planned obsolescence".

So try clearing BIOS and installing a new motherboard battery, scanning thoroughly for malware, and see what happens.

Do you have another CD or DVD drive you could swap into this PC just to see if some other drive will read CDs?

Will The Edge · Answer

Well, here is a followup to my never ending problems with this old Dell computer. I tried most suggestions short of replacing the optical drives. I finally replaced the internal drives with ASUS drives and life was almost good again. Autoplay worked and music could be copied to disc. (What are the odds of both drives going out at the same time??) The problem remained about getting usable audio recorded on the new drives. I finally found my old Nero application and reinstalled it. Yes, now it works. Looks like the software had gotten corrupted too. So, just so you will know, there is sometimes hope for those semi-computer literate.

XPS Desktops

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