Drive can read DVD's but not CD's.

[bluestrobe]

I had a Dell Dimension 4700C brought to me with the owner reported that the slim drive it came with will only read DVD's and not CD's. I got it and found it was true and when a CD was inserted in the Windows environment, it would only scan it then act as if the CD was never inserted. The DVD's would scan and read right away with no problems. I tried to boot of a CD with the same response. I don't have a bootable DVD to try it that way although I doubt it would change the outcome. The optical drive model is Philips DVD/CDRW CDD5263. I did a quick search for a firmware upgrade and found nothing. I?m not fluent with the slim drives so here I am. Would it be safe to say this drive is toast? Also is this a common drive I can get somewhere online or are these made specially for Dell?

 

[nomagic]

Under Warranty? Yes? Then have Dell ship you a new drive.

 

[bluestrobe]

I'll check with the owner.

 

[bluestrobe]

Just checked, its 1 week out of warranty.

 

[dnuggett]

There are seperate lasers for DVD and CD within the same drive. Sounds like the CD laser is gone.

Before sending it off to Dell, I'd pull it out, uninstall the drivers and restart the machine. Then reinstal the drivers from Dell's site and put the drive back in.

 

[bluestrobe]

Dell doesn't even show this drive being in this computer as far as I can see. Since it's out of warranty, I'll replace the drive myself if it comes to that.