DVD/RW ATA Won't Recognize Disc

[jbhbtb]

Hello,

We have a Dell Inspiron 530 with a TSST corp DVD+-RW TS-H653F ATA Device, bought in 2008. I am not a techy (wish I was!) and am suddenly having trouble getting it to read any type of disc. We recently moved, carefully, and have had trouble ever since. The device manager says that the device is working properly, but it clearly is not. When I put a disc in, it sounds like it is reading, but then stops. When looking at the drive, it doesn't list a description of the disc and if I double click it, I get a message telling me to please insert a disc. Any ideas on what I need to do?? Thank you in advance for any advice

[Kerry56]

Welcome to the forums jbhbtb.

Since you’ve had problems after moving, the first thing I’d check would be the physical connectors on the cables. Make sure they aren’t loose on the drive, and check the SATA cable connection where it hooks up to the motherboard. You could also try a different SATA port on the motherboard if there is one available.

Another thing to try is cleaning the lens of the drive. Most of the commercially made lens cleaners aren’t very good, but cleaning the lens by hand isn’t the simplest job. You’d have to take the drive out of the computer case, remove the steel case of the drive itself, then use a tiny amount of isopropyl alcohol on a cotton swab to clean the lens.

If you think it is a software problem, you can try clicking the link in my signature that says [B]Microsoft support for optical drives[/B]. Follow the instructions on that page. May not help in this case.

There aren’t too many other things to try. You could check to see which firmware is in the drive now and see if it should be updated. Here is the latest one at the Dell site: http://support.us.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&releaseid=R225729&formatcnt=0&libid=0&typeid=-1&dateid=-1&formatid=-1&source=-1&fileid=323368

[jbhbtb]

Thank you! Okay, I am going to show my complete and total lack of any computer knowledge here How do I check the cables? I assume you are talking about inside the tower itself?

[Arachne]

Welcome to the forum!

I was drawn to this as you have the same PC and drive as I do, and may be able to answer your question about removing the side of the PC case to reach the drive/connections (yes, you will have to do this!).

Assuming your case is the same as mine, you just undo the screws on the back of the tower, holding the sides of the case on.

Now, on mine, I just unscrew the left hand side of the case, and can get to the drive/motherboard SATA connectors from there. So just try removing the left hand side first, hopefully you won’t need to remove the right, unless your PC is different to mine inside.

Hope that made sense, LOL!

EDIT: BTW, I recently installed the DW10 firmware from the Dell site, if you want to give that a shot.

[cholla]

Just a quick warning that was left out . Unplug your computer from any power before opening the case. Then make sure to touch the case to ground yourself or do so with a static strap. Then check the connections to see if they are OK.
Then plug your PC back in .It is ok to leave the side off for this just don’t do anything inside while it is plugged in.

[jbhbtb]

Thanks again! So, I have unplugged, grounded and unscrewed, but the sides don’t want to come off. There are only actual screws at the back and then “divets” on the underside. The sides almost feel like they are glued on. Do I have to pull really hard or is there a trick to maneuver them off?

[Arachne]

[QUOTE=cholla;2580012]Just a quick warning that was left out . Unplug your computer from any power before opening the case. Then make sure to touch the case to ground yourself or do so with a static strap. Then check the connections to see if they are OK.
Then plug your PC back in .It is ok to leave the side off for this just don’t do anything inside while it is plugged in.[/QUOTE]

Excellent advice, especially for somebody who’s new to the isides of their PC. I can’t believe I forgot that! :o

[QUOTE=jbhbtb;2580018]Thanks again! So, I have unplugged, grounded and unscrewed, but the sides don’t want to come off. There are only actual screws at the back and then “divets” on the underside. The sides almost feel like they are glued on. Do I have to pull really hard or is there a trick to maneuver them off?[/QUOTE]

Sounds like your tower case could be slightly different to mine, although we own the same model. Any chance you can find a pic online of your PC case or take a quick pic with a camera or your mobile?

With mine, once I undo the screws, the sides of the case slide from front to back to get them off. I’ll try and grab a pic of mine in the meantime.

EDIT: Here’s a pic from the net, this is the one I have

[jbhbtb]

Here you go!

[Arachne]

Arrrgh, just realised - you may need to get your nails in where the screws are, and pull the side of the case outwards to remove it (gently because of the divets you mention along the bottom).

I got that case mixed up with my other Dell (a Dimension E520, whose side does slide off LOL).

Apologies for any confusion! :o

EDIT: I see your pic, identical to mine. Yep, dig your nails - or a flat screwdriver - underneath the edges where the screws are, and gently pull away from the unit.

[jbhbtb]

Got it…finally! So, I reached up and made sure all of the cables were in securely. I am attempting to restart the computer (it is having issues - startup repair), so we will see what happens. I will try the drive again and if it doesn’t work, I will download the DW10. Hopefully something will work!

[Arachne]

Glad you managed to check the cables :D…I was starting to confuse myself at one point, hehe!

Yep, try the firmware afterwards…you mention the computer having other issues, I wonder if these could be related, and an OS reinstall might be an option? Of course, that’d only be possible if you have another drive installed to do this.

Also: do you know anyone who’d let you plug the drive into their PC to check it out as a last ditch resort?

Hopefully others will stop by with some further things to try - we don’t give up easily.

[jbhbtb]

Yeah, we have had issues ever since we moved, which makes no sense. From email (Microsoft Outlook suddenly got a virus, so we had to switch to Mozilla Thunderbird), our printer isn’t working, which is what has led us to try to fix the drive. We are trying to download a new driver for the printer, but it keeps failing. If our drive worked, we could simply reinstall the software that we have on disc. We are going round and round! So, I am working on downloads, which hopefully will solve it all Thank you so much for your help!

[Arachne]

Oh dear!

Sounds like an OS reinstall (especially since you’ve had a virus) would be a good idea when/if we can get this drive back up and running.

Good luck, let us know how it goes. You’re welcome BTW

[Kerry56]

There have been some viral infections in pc’s that interfere with the operation of optical disk drives. I’ve seen it mentioned while trying to burn disks usually.

You may want to use the restore partition that Dell provides on the hard drive. You’ll want to back up your data first, and with the optical drive on the fritz, you may want to invest in a good usb thumb drive to save any personal data. A thumb drive is also an alternative for getting your printer driver on the computer, but I would think that is low priority compared to virus infection.