Laptop DVD burner not working

[acegazda]

My brother has a dell 1521 laptop and just recently he found that he couldn't open the dvd drive door. I opened it manually but then found that it wouldn't play cd's. Further investigation revealed that the cd drive wasn't recognized by the computer. So, I don't know if it somehow became disconnected or there is a driver issue, but I need to know how to get the dvd burner working again. Thanks in advance.

 

[acegazda]

bump?

 

[MegaVovaN]

I think it's a driver issue.

My Dad's desktop Dell didn't recognize drive, he reinstalled Vista and all worked well.

 

[acegazda]

ok thanks I'll try that

 

[Jiggz]

Is there even power to the drive that will let it open? If not, this is just more than a driver issue. If there is no power, it could be a loose connection of the drive with the ide connector or the drive is fubar! Optical drives are usually replaceable and doesn't necessarily to be the same brand. Toshbia is very good on this.