Yes i did install the PowerDVD software and also the Sonic DVD burning software. Non of which reading DVDs nor burning.

Run the Dell Diagnostics on the drive.  At start up, press the F12
key, the one time boot menu will come up.  Arrow down to the Utility
Partition, select Custom Test, and then choose the CDROM. Make sure
you have a data CD in the drive you are going to test.  If it passes with

a data CD, run it again and try it with a data DVD.

 

Also, please post the brand and model of the drive.

 

Does the drive show in My Computer?

 

Does the drive show in the Device Manager?

 

Does the drive read CDs?

Its the Sony DVD+-RW   DW-Q58A dual layer drive. I also see a Hitachi disk drive. In addition under, the sony DVD +-RW drive properties says working ok but location is saying 0. does that mean the computer is not finding the drive?

Thanks for the suggestion but I did that more than twice and each time i inserted a DVD it says please insert a disc in drive and i dont hear or feel the dvd disc picking up speed as it normally do. This is rather strange because that started happening when the files got corrupt and I had to format and reinstalled OS and dell utilities and drivers. Not even the dell media direct DVD is reading when i run the self diagnostic mode.

yes the drive shows in my computer and device manager and it does read cds and burn cds too

You might want to give this Firmware a try, otherwise, I
suspect that the DVD laser may have failed ............

 

I did and same problem. I highly doubt that the dvd laser fail since this only start happening from when i formatted and reinstall windows xp and dell utilities. The drive also read the DVD with the dell drivers and utilities installations. Thats the only DVD it reads, so i really dont think the laser fail. Its more of a configuration problem. 

After persistent exhausting many possibilities i got a message in powerDVD saying i need to change the dvd region code. I used a software to disable the region code in the drive but i figured there is still a region code request in the softwares or posibly in the operating system. now how do i disable or bypass the region code embeded in the softwares decoder and OS. I really dont want to buy a new DVD drive and then have the same problem. Thanks much for your responses.

Some DVD playback software wants a region code setup, but most
do not.  Check the options and setup of the players.  It is the
drive that usually determines the region to be played.  As an
experiment, give VLC Media Player a try here ............

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

i have tried that also and it never read the dvd. am thinking maybe i should reinstall everything and configure than problem first before install any dvd decoding software. or maybe uninstall all dvd decoding software and then configure the drive region free then install decoding software. what you think?

Do keep in mind that the Dell Diagnostics would not read a DVD.

That may well indicate a DVD laser weakness or failure.  Let us

know how things work out.