I would run diagnostics on it next to see if there's a hardware failure. To access those press F12 on the dell logo screen, then select boot to utility partition. From there, select custom test, click on CD/DVD, then select your drive and click run tests at the bottom, and see if there is an error that it puts out.

Actually if you give them that code they should replace it quickly.

If those tests failed then you would need to get a new drive. If it's under warranty, dell will replace it for free.

I have the same problem, everything was going fine until one day it stopped burning disk and now every time I put a CD/DVD in the drive, I get a windows System Error "Cannot read drive E". Funny thing is I can still navigate the drive, look at files, even execute some, but installing fails all the time.

 

I have a Philips DVD8801 as well except I tried the custom test at boot time for the dvd drive, but my philips drive says that the built in spindle test is unsupported, nevertheless, the read test fails on 3 different cd's.... error code 650F:021B. I am still on warranty, should I be calling Dell very soon??

 

Thank you

Yes I would call them and provide them your error code.

Awesome, good to hear.