Some (many?) DVD drives have two lasers - one for the DVD function and one for the CD. It is certainly possible to imagine that the CD laser could fail while the DVD laser still works.
A quick search with Google and Wikipedia reveals:
A CD is read by a 780 nm wavelength semiconductor laser.
A DVD is read with a 640nm laser.
That is certainly an option. The drive is easy to replace (only one screw in the base of the laptop holds it in place). You can buy laptop drives that will fit (provided you stick to the models Dell used) but I will leave it to someone with more knowledge to suggest where from and which model to buy. What brand and model drive do you currently have?
Yes, I'm also having problem and my warranty is past due. Seems like alot of us are having the same dvd/cd rom not recognizing in my computer ( Inspiron 6000)
I am having the exact same problem with the drive. I am SO frustrated!!! I cannot even install Microsoft Office because my CD drive won't read the disk. I am beyond patience and I don't want to spend further money on this computer which has already cost me quite a lot. What can we do to get Dell to pay attention to this issue?
@cmhayes13 wrote:
I am having the exact same problem with the drive.
...
What can we do to get Dell to pay attention to this issue?
What brand & model DVD drive does your laptop have - the i6000 shipped with a number of different units over its lifetime.
What warranty period did you buy? I got the 3 year one to avoid just this sort of problem.
My NEC-6500A DVD drive started scratching CDs and I called Dell and they quickly shipped me a replacement (an NEC-6650A I think).
As for what you can do to get Dell to solve your issues, I do not know.
I also have an Inspiron 6000, and it stopped working last year just a few days before my warantee expired. I even received an unsolicited phone call from Dell asking if I wanted to extend my warantee. It sounds suspicious to me. Anyone else with this "coincidence" of the CD-Rom failing very near expiration of warantee? Anyone know of any investigations following up on this? Thanks.
I am having this very same issue. Except that it failed 2-3 years after our 1 yr limited warrenty.... And I refuse to pay any more for this....... And a new CD drive worked for maybe 5 hrs, then fell into the exact same issue.
russb40r
5 Posts
0
September 11th, 2006 09:00
Sean
ymo
122 Posts
0
September 11th, 2006 22:00
A quick search with Google and Wikipedia reveals:
A CD is read by a 780 nm wavelength semiconductor laser.
A DVD is read with a 640nm laser.
hrrcne
6 Posts
0
September 12th, 2006 00:00
ymo
122 Posts
0
September 12th, 2006 00:00
eduong68
10 Posts
0
September 12th, 2006 20:00
cmhayes13
4 Posts
0
September 13th, 2006 06:00
ymo
122 Posts
0
September 13th, 2006 22:00
What brand & model DVD drive does your laptop have - the i6000 shipped with a number of different units over its lifetime.
What warranty period did you buy? I got the 3 year one to avoid just this sort of problem.
My NEC-6500A DVD drive started scratching CDs and I called Dell and they quickly shipped me a replacement (an NEC-6650A I think).
As for what you can do to get Dell to solve your issues, I do not know.
hrrcne
6 Posts
0
September 13th, 2006 23:00
ymo
122 Posts
0
September 14th, 2006 00:00
Very unlucky about the warranty expiration :-(
Nothing I can suggest at this point.
tmnyc
1 Message
0
May 30th, 2007 23:00
Zimm511
8 Posts
0
January 2nd, 2008 16:00