do you still have windvd installed?
can you explore the dvd in windows explorer?

I re-installed WinDVD and nothing happens.  I checked into the BIOS and it does see the drive as a CD-RW/DVD combo drive.

I found the u007 driver online and I installed it, making sure to turn off auto-update on windows because auto-update kept installing the driver as a CD-ROM driver.

I can't even explore the disk when I insert it.  It just doesn't think it has anything.  I put it in, right-click, explore, and it says "Please insert disc in D:" or something of that sort. 

Can anyone help me out?>

After a long discussion on the phone with Dell support ( amonth or so back), one conclusion was a possible death of the laser. I was told that DVD has a different laser (that is not very obvious to me when I look into the drive). Can somebody confirm this ? In which case, this probably was a quality issue with the this model (SAMSUNG !!). Has anybody done a XP reinstall wherein everything was initialized and it still did not respond ? Also, did anyone have an extended warranty and hence could send the system back to Dell for repair. If the machine came with a new drive, we know it is a hopeless situation not deserving anymore time.

Response from Dell experts will be greatly appreciated.

Sreeni

I concur! I have been trying to solve the same problem for two years. I have wasted a lot of my life on the problem and now my poor father has taken up the challenge. I am amazed to see how many people have experienced, and continue to experience, the same problem. I fear the worst - SN-308B owners have been sold a dud drive. How many failures does it take to prompt a recall? The experience has certainly soured my impressions of DELL. Things fail ocassionally, I accept that, but the scale of the problem as indicated by this forum is astounding. Why on earth would I be confident replacing my defunct combo drive with another?