Old Dell laptop not recognising DVD

[rodisi]

I've been given an old Dell Latitude C600 laptop that is driving me crazy. My present problem is when it starts it stops at the Windows XP is loading screen so I decided to reinstall WIndows through the DVD. Unfortunately the drive is not recognised - it does not spin, no light and I cannot open the tray with the button.
On closer examination, it appears that there must have been some bluetack on the DVD connector and when it was plugged in it stuck on the motherboard connector. I have managed to clean the DVD connector but on the motherboard it appears that one pin is bad. I have looked everywhere but can't find a pinout for the 60-pin connector to see if it's possible that that is the power pin. I don't think it's the drive because I have tried another one with no result.
I have searched the forum and followed the links that were given but to no avail. If it's of any use, the DVD is an LG DRN-8080B.
Any ideas gratefully received.

 

[hang-the-9]

Can it boot off the USB ports? If it can, try using an external DVD player or possibly a USB bootable stick.

 

[rodisi]

Unfortunately not. It's a very old laptop.

 

[rodisi]

I am now wondering if I can install Win XP on the drive when I connect it, via a USB converter, to another laptop. Once I have done that, I can put it back in the original laptop. So my question is different from all others that I have searched, who want to boot from the USB.

 

[hang-the-9]

I am now wondering if I can install Win XP on the drive when I connect it, via a USB converter, to another laptop. Once I have done that, I can put it back in the original laptop. So my question is different from all others that I have searched, who want to boot from the USB.

Windows won't let you install on an external USB drive. You can try using that drive as a main drive, and after the setup copies the files but before it does the first reboot you can move it to the laptop. It may continue normally with the setup.

 

[rodisi]

I am now wondering if I can install Win XP on the drive when I connect it, via a USB converter, to another laptop. Once I have done that, I can put it back in the original laptop. So my question is different from all others that I have searched, who want to boot from the USB.

Windows won't let you install on an external USB drive. You can try using that drive as a main drive, and after the setup copies the files but before it does the first reboot you can move it to the laptop. It may continue normally with the setup.

Sorry, hang-the-9, brain going mushy, here. When you say use the drive as a main drive do you mean install it into my prpper laptop? If that's what you mean, I can't do that because the drive is an IDE Pata and my laptop is SATA. What I'm thinking, because the drive in question is already a bootable drive except that it stops at the windows screen, can I copy to it an ISO image of the Windows XP CD and go from there?

 

[hang-the-9]

I am now wondering if I can install Win XP on the drive when I connect it, via a USB converter, to another laptop. Once I have done that, I can put it back in the original laptop. So my question is different from all others that I have searched, who want to boot from the USB.

Windows won't let you install on an external USB drive. You can try using that drive as a main drive, and after the setup copies the files but before it does the first reboot you can move it to the laptop. It may continue normally with the setup.

Sorry, hang-the-9, brain going mushy, here. When you say use the drive as a main drive do you mean install it into my prpper laptop? If that's what you mean, I can't do that because the drive is an IDE Pata and my laptop is SATA. What I'm thinking, because the drive in question is already a bootable drive except that it stops at the windows screen, can I copy to it an ISO image of the Windows XP CD and go from there?

Yes, put the drive in as the main drive in another system, start the setup through file copy but turn it off at first reboot. With your old drive though you have an issue as you pointed out. Not sure what you will do with the ISO image of the disk if you can't boot off the DVD drive or USB drive. Did you try an external DVD drive? Some systems actually restrict what external drive will work, I had two systems that I remember I needed to try with 3-4 different drive models to find one that booted off a disk.