Problems with cdrw/dvd drive

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Hi

I have a Dell Dimension 2400 which has a Samsung CDRW/DVD SM-352F Drive
installed.

This was working fine for months but suddenly when any type of disc is put in
it simply isn't recognised. The drive itself is recognised but no discs. The
drive light flashes briefly but it doesn't "power up".

I've tried to uninstall and reboot but this doesn't help. The Dell support
centre is utterly useless and doesn't bother to reply to my emails - UK and US
sites. I've run through the help and diagnostics but it just says that it's
operating ok?

Any suggestions gratefully received.

Rgds,

Brian

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Your next step is to try booting to a bootable CD, such as:
windows 98SE full install,
W2K, WME, or WXP.
Other excellent options are Dell resource CDs and Dell reinstall CDs.
FIRST, TEST the CD you have chosen by using it to BOOT SUCCESSFULLY to
another computer.

Here's the point:
IF you *can* boot to a CDROM, *then* the problem is in your software.
If you can *NOT* boot to the CDROM, you must examine your bios settings, the
cables, the drive, and the motherboard.
These are longer stories I'm not gonna go into right now. Either way, you've
narrowed down your issues by 50%.

Dick Silk -- The Computer Tutor
http://personalpages.tds.net/~rcsilk
for rates and online chat

- Gotta run. My neighbors just sighted Elvis making crop circles.



"RannochPine" <rannochpine@aol.comspamoff> wrote in message
news:20041201145919.06367.00000777@mb-m26.aol.com...
>
> Hi
>
> I have a Dell Dimension 2400 which has a Samsung CDRW/DVD SM-352F Drive
> installed.
>
> This was working fine for months but suddenly when any type of disc is put
> in
> it simply isn't recognised. The drive itself is recognised but no discs.
> The
> drive light flashes briefly but it doesn't "power up".
>
> I've tried to uninstall and reboot but this doesn't help. The Dell support
> centre is utterly useless and doesn't bother to reply to my emails - UK
> and US
> sites. I've run through the help and diagnostics but it just says that
> it's
> operating ok?
>
> Any suggestions gratefully received.
>
> Rgds,
>
> Brian

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

> I have a Dell Dimension 2400 which has a Samsung CDRW/DVD SM-352F Drive
> installed.
>
> This was working fine for months but suddenly when any type of disc is put
in
> it simply isn't recognised. The drive itself is recognised but no discs.
The
> drive light flashes briefly but it doesn't "power up".
>
> I've tried to uninstall and reboot but this doesn't help. The Dell support
> centre is utterly useless and doesn't bother to reply to my emails - UK
and US
> sites. I've run through the help and diagnostics but it just says that
it's
> operating ok?
>
> Any suggestions gratefully received.
>
> Rgds,
>
> Brian

I have a customer with the exact same problem twice now. The first time,
Dell was able to give me instructions (outlined in
http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/kb/en/document?DN=TT1055094)
to resolve the matter. Removing the upperfilters and lowerfilters keys from
the registry did the trick the first time her machine broke.

You might want to give that a try - it did work for her for a few months but
now, the machine is exhibiting the same problems and this time, Dell service
has been really bad - the call center could not help at all - just
frustration because the person on the other end is just relying on some
computer troubleshooting scripts that do not have this problem fully solved.
To their credit, they did send a repair person (after much threatening by
the owner) out to replace the drive but that was not the problem.

The bad news is, Dell has no solution other than reformat and reinstall
Windows.

I do suspect that it is an interaction between the Dell controller hardware
and Windows XP SP2 since her problems started after SP2 installed itself via
the auto update feature.

If anyone has a fix for this, I'd be interested too before I do the big
backup and reformat procedure.

Hope this might help ...

PMK

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Many thanks for this - I'll give it a try. Unfortunately Dell have been no help
at all!

Appreciate it,

Brian

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

I have a customer with the exact same problem twice now. The first time,
Dell was able to give me instructions (outlined in
http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/kb/en/document?
DN=TT1055094)
to resolve the matter. Removing the upperfilters and lowerfilters keys from
the registry did the trick the first time her machine broke.

- The link doesn't work - "not available or doesn't exist". Would you mind
posting the text if you have it? I'm afraid I don't know enough to remove the
keys you describe. I have been into the registry to make changes but only by
following instructions.

Incidentally, this happened to my PC previously (before XP SP2 was installed).
The drive started working again, apparently of its own accord! It has now gone
again.

I posted on the Dell community forum and received the following from a helpful
chap:

""If deleting the IDE channel and your burner from Device Manager doesn't help,
open the Registry (Start -> Run -> Regedit) and open the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Class \
{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

Within this key you will find several subkeys. Most likely you will see the
following:

0000 (for the IDE controller)
0001 (for the Primary IDE channel)
0002 (for the Secondary IDE channel)

Each of these subkeys has a named valued called "DriverDesc" that will make it
clear to you to which component they correspond. Open the subkey corresponding
to the channel on which your troublesome drive is located. Then, if the
troublesome drive is the master, delete the "MasterIdDataChecksum" named value.
Or, if the troublesome drive is the slave, delete the "SlaveIdDataChecksum"
named value.

Reboot. The OS will redetect the device DMA capabilities after reboot.

Note that for many older CD-ROM drives DMA can not be enabled in Windows
2000/XP, so be sure to check the capabilities of your particular drive if you
continue to have problems.""

Unfortunately it didn't work for me but it may in other cases.

Brian

 

[rosebill]

I also have a 2400, with a NEC CD RW. I found that the software Roxio was the problem, once I deleted that everything worked fine again. Hope that helps