Trying to reformat

Great, glad to help. :)

PowerDVD and Roxio should of been included on their own DVDs for newer systems they are included in My Dell Downloads. As you installed WIndows Vista, likely this system is pre-My Dell Downloads so should of came as a physical CD/DVD.

I don't really like Roxio anyway and suggest you to use the free imgburn instead.

As regards to PowerDVD, you can try the free VLC player it should be fine to use unless you plan to use blu-ray. I like SplashLite also as a media player but unfortunately it still has no DVD playback they were going to make a version that did a couple years ago but nothings happened. Sometimes I use freemake video convertor and watch my DVDs with SplashLite.

Normally I would say copy the CD/DVDs on another computer to a USB stick and install however for these two pieces of software that advice isn't much use.

Do a quick check can the system boot still from the Windows Vista DVD within the Dell BIOS. i.e. stick in the Vista DVD and press F12 at the Dell BIOS screen. If it boots the drive can read DVDs:

If you have an XP CD also try booting from it to verify if the drive can boot from CDs.
If you don't have a XP CD to hand create a bootable UBUNTU CD by burning the .iso with imgburn on another computer.

If the system can boot off either media, then the drive is fine. If it can only boot off a DVD but not a CD then the drive can no longer read CDs and one of the lasers has went. Vice versa for booting off a CD and not a DVD. If it can't boot off either likely the drive is completely knackered.

If the system can boot off both the CD and DVD then it is a windows issue.

A lens cleaning CD/DVD such as this here may help

I would personally run the full diagnostics within the BIOS as it sounds like either your CD/DVD drive or HardDrive may be going funny and you've had a bit of a rough ride with the install.

Also just want to check, you didn't by any chance update the fireware for the CD/DVD drive? This broke a drive for me in the past and I haven't applying a CD/DVD firmware update since.

Hi Philip,  It appears as if the drive died. I cannot boot a dvd or a cd from the DELL Bios.  Also I did not do a firmware update the CD/DVD DRIVE.  Any idea of what a new drive would cost?  I do appreciate all your help. And thanks for doing the Wikis. I have another DELL laptop to format and will be using your wiki as a guide.  Annie

Quickly try to reseat the drive before buying a new one however. Power down the system, remove the AC adaptor and battery and remove the DVD drive.

Reinsert the battery and AC adaptor and power up the computer, log into WIndows and restart. Remove the AC adaptor and the Battery, reinsert the DVD drive, reinsert the battery and the AC adaptor and try again.

Something like $8.50 but only for a CD/RE and DVD/R:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Precision-M65-CD-RW-DVD-ROM-Combo-Laptop-Drive-8W007-A01-OEM-Tested-/290802371574?pt=US_CD_DVD_Blu_Ray_Drives&hash=item43b52c0bf6

For a CD/RW and DVD/RW +/- you can see here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Precision-Laptop-m4300-m2300-m65-m70-8X-DL-DVD-RW-Burner-Drive-/370693391046?pt=US_CD_DVD_Blu_Ray_Drives&hash=item564f0c42c6

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Latitude-D820-D830-D531-Precision-M65-M4300-IDE-DVD-RW-Drive-PN116-C3284-/390500595015?pt=US_CD_DVD_Blu_Ray_Drives&hash=item5aeba63547

Philip-Thanks for the great information.  I will tackle this tomorrrow.  

Rick-Good find. I will give this a try before I try to reseat the drive.  (Only a dusting of snow here. Who got the three inches?)

Annie and Philip,

It may be only a suggestion that may or may not work. I would try the upper/lower filters fix and see if it works.

Your CD drive or DVD drive is missing or is not recognized by Windows or other programs

Also check in the BIOS and see if the cd/dvd rom is recognized.

Make sure to clear your sidewalk of the snow.:emotion-5:

Rick

Annie,

Only a dusting of snow here. Who got the three inches?)

1" of slopp, here.

Philip can get you going, it was something that I thionk happened a while back and removing the filters worked.

Rick

Hi Philip, Thanks for checking in on my reformatting and dealing with the dvd drive that no longer works.  I had to stop work on this laptop to format an Inspiron Laptop for my sister.  The formatting went smoothly on the Inspirion-I used your Wiki, for some guidance. I think my sister's children really messsed up her laptop and she needs it back pronto.  I haven't had time to get back to the Precision M65. My next steps on the Precision are to run diagnostics and then replace the drive. I probably will buy one of the used drives from the site you sent me.  Have a great day and thanks for all your help.