CD burner will not BURN or OPEN

[Guest]

I am using a Dimension 8400 with Windows XP.

The other day I discovered I could no longer burn a CD in my burner drive.
No matter which software I tried it with, I got the alert:
"There is no disc in the drive. Please insert a writeable CD into drive E:/"

There was a CD in there, of course. I tried different ones, different
brands, but got the same results.

Then I contact Dell support and they press F2 when my computer started up,
and clear my system event log, then restart the computer. Then I was told to
download and install the upgrade on this page
http://support.dell.com/support/dow...&typecnt=1&vercnt=3&formatcnt=1&fileid=132121

I did all of that.
But when I restarted my computer, I found that NOW my drive won't even open.
I had to resort to the paperclip method just to open the drive to put a CD
in.

Now, the drive still won't burn, and it's impossible to open.

I've search all over the Internet and found people with similar problems,
but RESULTS are never listed.

Can someone help me out please??

 

[Guest]

I should add that I am using a Philips DVD + RW 8631

 

[Yves Leclerc]

Does the drive open before you get in XP? Make a MS-DOS boot disk and try
booting MS-DOS to see if the drive would open. If not, then the drive is
dieing or dead. You may have to replace it. Call be Dell and explain your
problem. If it is still under warranty, then they will organize the
shipping of a replacement.

 

[Guest]

I used the Dell CHAT program and they had me run some tests and agreed since
i am still under warranty they will send someone out to replace my drive.

the drive shows up in my device manager has fine, says it is working
properly. But I cannot even get it to open without the paperclip. It cannot
read CDs, DVDs, or burn. However the regular CD drive above it can read fine.

Is this really about replacing the whole thing? Can't I uninstall and
reinstall a driver or something?

 

[Yves Leclerc]

You need to check the drive so as to see if the drive can OPEN before XP
starts. Follow my previous sujestion and create a MS-DOS boot floppy. Then
boot with this floppy and check to see if the drive OPENS. If it does not,
the drive is "toast". If it opens, then it may just be an XP driver.

 

[Richard Urban [MVP]]

You have a hardware problem with a piece of hardware supplied by Dell
(likely proprietary). That is the best source to continue with to solve your
problem. Ask if they have a drive test utility, similar to what Sony has to
test their drives. It will give the drive a go/no go test. If the drive is
bad, and the computer is still under warranty, Dell should be asked to
replace it.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from: George Ankner
"If you knew as much as you thought you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!"