Dell Inspiron E1505 Sony CD/DVD Drive not reading

[mtdavis]

I have a Dell Inspiron E1505 and upgraded to Windows Vista, around the same time my CD/DVD drive stopped reading CD's that work in other computers. I decided that I didn't like Vista that much and went back to XP, but the still have the CD drive issue. I recently reformatted my HD and the CD drive had no problem reading the Windows XP CD. I've looked around a bit as to what the problem may be and read that it might be a bad optical drive? I'm not too sure what the problem may be and looking for some help. On the device manager the drive is listed as a "SONY DVD+-RW DW-Q58A" if that helps at all.

 

[xit]

Sounds as though your drive has indeed failed, now, is your system still under warranty? If your system is not under warranty your drive can still be replaced. When you put in a disk do you hear any spin-up?

xit

 

[BadBigBen]

Things to check:

see if setting the drive to PIO mode (SLOW) will cure the problem...

Device Manager >> IDE ATAPI Controller >> Primary or Secondary Channel (depending on which the drive is attached to)...

if it does then you definitely have a transfer speed problem, up it to ULTRA DMA2 (most optical drives operate on that speed) in steps, until you find which one is causing the hiccup...

I am betting on the above, due to the fact that you can read CD's when you install XP...

you could also check for a firmware update on that drive, to see if that cures the problem...

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[mtdavis]

Thanks for the suggestions. It does the same thing every time: makes some spinning and fan noises when it's first inserted for a good 30 seconds, then a CD picture shows up on my cursor tip showing that a CD has been inserted and trying to read, but then I click on "D:" to pull up the CD or to try to read it, it just opens a blank folder/drive. Normally, if it doesn't acknowledge a CD in the drive and you click "D:" then it will say please insert a disc.

My guess is that it knows that it's there but can't read it?

xit,
No, the warranty is up on the computer so Dell won't replace it. I do hear the disc spin up, but it never reads.

Ben,
I changed the transfer speed on both Primary and Secondary seperately to see if that was the problem but I didn't notice any change/CD didn't read. It noticed the XP CD on restart.

 

[BadBigBen]

we have established that this is a SOFTWARE problem, as it reads the install CD and upon restart recognizes the XP CD...

now the million dollar question: what Burn software do you use or have installed?

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[mtdavis]

The only CD that it has read is the XP CD during boot, and for some odd reason the Dell CD that has my drivers on it, I was able to use. I've tried all my other software CDs (Microsoft Office, other factory & printer software) but they just won't show up. This thing is driving me nuts!

I don't use the drive as a burner, but I normally install the burner software just to have it if needed. Roxio is what came with the computer.

 

[Johnthephoneguy]

Strange that it will read 2 CD's with no problems, and no others. If it was a hardware failure, you would think it would not work at all.

JohnThePhoneGuy

"If I can't fix it, it's not broke!

 

[BadBigBen]

I don't use the drive as a burner, but I normally install the burner software just to have it if needed. Roxio is what came with the computer.

in that case, deinstall Roxio... Roxio digs too deep into the registry, and when things get corrupted it will affect drivers of Optical drives...

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[mtdavis]

I haven't had the chance to install Roxio since it's on a CD and the drive won't read any other CDs besided the XP on boot and the drivers CD. I'm thinking about borrowing an external CD drive to install my other apps (microsoft office and printer software) but would like to find a solution w/o paying an arm and a leg for something that may take 30 mins of work!