hardware question

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dan Conrad
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Dan Conrad

Have a dell inspiron 6000 circa 2005, out of warranty. OS is XP media
edition. DVD drive no longer recognizes CDs, but still works with DVDs
-- is this a setup issue or a drive failure issue. Note that just prior
to this happening, I tried to play a europe formated movie dvd, which
did not play. Tried Dell boards to no avail -- any help appreciated.
 
Dan Conrad said:
Have a dell inspiron 6000 circa 2005, out of warranty. OS is XP media
edition. DVD drive no longer recognizes CDs, but still works with
DVDs -- is this a setup issue or a drive failure issue. Note that
just prior to this happening, I tried to play a europe formated movie
dvd, which did not play. Tried Dell boards to no avail -- any help
appreciated.
Click to expand...

FWIW, Dell support will still *talk* to you even if the hardware is out of
warranty.
 
Dan Conrad said:
Have a dell inspiron 6000 circa 2005, out of warranty. OS is XP media
edition. DVD drive no longer recognizes CDs, but still works with DVDs --
is this a setup issue or a drive failure issue. Note that just prior to
this happening, I tried to play a europe formated movie dvd, which did not
play. Tried Dell boards to no avail -- any help appreciated.
Click to expand...

It's more likely a problem with the physical drive, not with setup. Try
using compressed air cans to clean dust out of the drive. If you're a
smoker, or near one or more, replace the drive, as the lens is probably
obscured with tar.

And it's cheap and trivial to replace them. Where I am, DVD writers - which
all also write CDs - are around $30. Physically replacing the drive takes
under ten minutes.

HTH
-pk
 
Hello Dan,

Your problem is most likely a hardware failure problem, but this may be
correctable. Go to your manufacturer's website to see if they have any
firmware upgrades for your cd drive. Most computer manufacturers provide
these software updates as they are available, and it doesn't matter whether
your system is out of warranty or not to download and install these updates.

You can click on the following link and download the latest firmware update
for your DVD/CD player. I believe the latest updates for your system are
circa 2006 so you may be able to correct your problem this way, . . . I
hope. If you can't click on the link, cut and paste it into your browser.

http://support.dell.com/support/dow...D=INS_PNT_6000&hidos=WW1&hidlang=en&TabIndex=

Also, in order to watch a DVD outside your native region, you must change
the regional setting of your DVD player which can only be done a few times.
After that, you cannot change it again no matter what, so be careful. The
best thing for you to do is to get a cheap dvd player you can use just for
the dvd's you own that are encoded for outside the USA region.

To change the region, open "My Computer" from your desktop. Right click on
your DVD player and go to "Hardware". Double click on your dvd player and
then click on the "DVD Region" tab. You will then see where you can choose
the region to change your dvd player to, and how many times remaining you
have for that.

If all else fails, like Lanwench said, Dell will still talk to you after
warranty.

Good Luck with this, and please reply to the group and let us know if this
worked.

Peace,

Jeffrey W. Bowen
Remove "No . . . Spam" from email address.
 
Correction on changing the region for your DVD player

To change the region, open "My Computer" from your desktop. Right click on
your DVD player and choose "Properties". Then go to "Hardware". Double
click on your dvd player and
then click on the "DVD Region" tab. You will then see where you can choose
the region to change your dvd player to, and how many times remaining you
have for that.

Peace,

Jeffrey W. Bowen
Remove "No . . . Spam" from email address
 
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