Inspiron 8200 - CD drive not reading disks

Question

My DVD/CD-RW drive used to work fine...  But now, it still shows up in my Windows Explorer, the OS recognizes t he drive, the driver seems fine, but...  I put a CD into the drive, it spins for a while, makes an intermittent almost-clicking sound while spinning, stops after a while...  When I click on the drive in Windows Explorer, I get a message box asking me to insert a disk...   What's wrong???

Monster83 · Answer

I have the exact same problem on my Inspiron 5160... the weird thing is, it only has a problem with CDs, it'll still play DVDs fine. Does that happen for you? I tried the download at the top of the page but my drive isn't QSI. Message Edited by Monster83 on 11-28-2004 08:48 AM

hunter513 · Answer

I can't read DVD's either.  The drive just spins, then makes a soft pushing sound (not quite clicking), then spins some more, makes the sound again, etc.  Then stops.  The drive shows up in Windows Explorer, but Windows Explorer never recognizes a disk.   I have the Samsung drive. Message Edited by hunter513 on 11-28-2004 05:33 PM

ITF · Answer

I have the no-cd but will play dvd issue here. It's on my NEC 5100a drive.

I just spoke with Dell for a while on the phone and basically the tech support manager told me there is no known issue (regardless of our posts here) about this. Maybe we need to post more about it to get them to take notice..

sabe002 · Answer

I have had my 5160 for um a little over a month, and it is not reading CD's. I reseated it, and now just some, not all are not reading. I did all the online support askedand nothing worked. Call tech. Maybe something is wrong with this batch of drive. Is there a forum administrator or a list we can sign to  say we are having the same problem. then we can send it to them.

LiLAnGeL29 · Answer

I have the same problem. I have a 4150. My CD Drive was working fine a couple weeks ago and then I dont know what happened. It spins and makes a noise like its reading the CD I put it but then it stops and nothing comes up. I try to open it from My Computer and it tells me theres nothing on the CD, but the CDs work fine on other computers. I can burn CDs but it wont let me play them or install software from CDs. Grrr I just got an iPod and a digital camera and I cant do much with them if my CD drive doesnt work and let me install the software!! Anyone find any solutions yet?

ITF · Answer

At the moment we're left with 2 options:   1.  Send the drive to Dell and they will replace it if you're under warranty 2.  Purchase a new drive from Dell or third party   Dell currently doesn't recognize this as an issue but we can only hope they see our posts here and respond to reports from the Tech guys we speak with explaining it...

Storage, Drives & Media

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