Sams. DVD-ROM drive no longer sees media

Question

Sometime in the last 12 days my factory-installed, always reliable Samsung SD-616E DVD-ROM Drive suddenly stopped working.  My computer now doesn’t 'see any' CDs or DVDs I place in it.  The drive’s still getting power: the drawer opens and closes as usual, and the green light flashes.  In My Computer, the D-Drive logo is visible, but when I click on icon to Open or Explore the media, computer shows an 'insert disk' message when there’s already CD or DVD in there.  I have a 6-month old Dell Dim. 8400, with Win XP and 2 DVD drives, the 2nd one being an NEC DVD burner that still works perfectly.  It also has a floppy drive, which works fine. I occasionally also use a flashdrive or digital camera in extra USB ports on monitor, but none are plugged in now.  The screens for Media Player and Dell Media Experience, and computer all see the DVD-ROM drive but, they all see it as not containing media.  I’m using pristine-condition media (a variety of clean CD (music and data) and DVDs), and have doublechecked all the cable connections to make sure they’re snug.  The tower sits in a cabinet where it’s rarely moved, and the only recent software (or hardware) installation before the problem was a standard Windows update.  So I restored the HD using GoBack and then Win Restore, but neither fixed the drive. My updated Norton antivirus and Ad-Aware found no problems.  I installed the latest chipset driver today.  I also called a Dell tech, who removed the old driver and had Windows install the latest one, to no avail.  This computer’s only 6 months old, and well taken care of.  Does anyone have any ideas how to bring the Samsung CD-ROM drive back to life?  I would greatly appreciate any suggestions. Donna

Predator · Answer

Hi Donna,It sems the Tech most likely ran you through some of the standard steps, I did not see any mention of re-loading the IDE channel; click on the Cd/RW link in my post and scroll to Section 20, article 3.The next step would be to try the Dell firmware update for this drive, hover your mouse over the Product Support Tab above, click on Downloads, enter information for your system and scroll to Removable Media Storage Devices.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 the difference. CD/RW Link

lumberjack76 · Answer

Wildw....check if you are able to boot ur system thru a bootable disk (XP or Drivers cd). If you are unable to boot the system through this drive..most likely the drive has failed.

wildw · Answer

Thanks for the suggestions.  I'm trying everything I can think of, and will attempt to boot up from the non-reading DVD-ROM drive Monday when I recontact the Dell tech. Meanwhile I've noticed in the device manager that the Multimedia Audio Controller is printed in yellow, and I've received messages when turning on the computer that the Multimedia Audio Controller software needs to be reinstalled or the hdwr won't function.  (The mfr and model number of device doesn't display in Device Manager, and I couldn't find any links to the Mult. Audio Control. software or other info searching the Dell support site under 'Multimedia Audio Controller'.    Any ideas about how to solve this?   Donna

Predator · Answer

Hi Donna, Try this link http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/WinXP/Q_21024072.html Best Regards, Jeff

KB1HWH · Answer

Here is a twist. My Samsung drive no longer will play DVD's, when one is loaded, the whole PC acts "ticked off" at it and when in 'my computer' it will eventually crash. Yet disks that are burned as CD roms plays fine and has no problems accessing.

It also should be noted that my Dell Media Experience is somehow corrupt and will not load, but Ive set the drive properties to prompt when a disk is inserted.

wildw · Answer

Problem solved: DVD-ROM drive was replaced inhome today by Dell tech (under warrantee). Since nothing could revive my DVD-ROM, I finally called and asked Dell to just replace unit. They ordered the part right away and installed it two days later (a 2-minute job).

Thanks for all of your helpful suggestions.

Donna

Predator · Answer

Glad to hear the news Donna, good luck with the new drive and your system!

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 the difference.

CD/RW Link

Storage, Drives & Media

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