Cannot access DVD drive.

A year or so ago I installed a DVD drive which has worked fine up to last week. Now, for no apparent reason my system (Dell Dimension with Windows XP sp2) refuses to recognize the DVD drive. When I try to use it I get a request to "insert a disc".

I'm pretty sure it's not a hardware fault and I don't recall any new software or hardware installations since I last used it that may have changed it's settings.

One thing that is a bit weird is that when I go to Device Manager and highlight either of the two drives (DVD or CD-ROM) three new icons appear at the top of the dialogue box (alongside "print' "help" etc). The first of these icons indicate "update driver". The next two have an "x" and a "no-go" superimposed and indicate "uninstall" and "disable" respectively.

I have tried uninstalling and re-installing; also tried System Restore to a time when I know it was working but with no result.

Does anyone have a suggestion??

Regards

 

When you first boot up look at the DVD Rom and see if the small green light blinks, also have you tried another (dvd rom)in its place ?? just a thought uninstall driver then just boot, then power off, then unplug power to dvd rom and boot then power off, then reconnect power lead and boot again and watch for driver instalation. I have had similar hardware problems and this method sometimes has worked.

 

Perhaps we could help more if we knew why you're sure that it's not a hardware fault. I'm not convinced -- yet. (In my experience, optical drives (eg., CD-ROM, DVD, etc.) are the kind of part most likely to fail in a desktop computer -- or stereo system, for that matter.)