Maximum PC

I use a Dell Latitude D630 running Windows XP Pro for work because I need to use some diagnostic apps that won't run under Windows 7. Everything was fine until last Thursday, when I started having trouble with the CD/DVD drive. It seems to read every pre-recorded disk I throw at it - store bought music CDs, home made music CDs, data CDs, store bought DVDs as well as my copied backup DVDs.

My job requires me to download trace logs from the system I work on and burn them to CDs. These CDs are sent back to the manufacturer with the failed parts that I've had to replace. The problem is that the drive won't recognize blank CDs anymore. When I drag a PDF file, for instance, from the desktop to the drive icon, I get a dialog box that says, "D:\ is not accessable. Incorrect function". I've tried 3 different manufactures' disks that I know worked flawlessly in the past, and I've also tried a different drive, all with the same results.

Device Manager shows the drive working okay. I deleted the drive from Device Manager and let the system reinstall it upon reboot, but still the same problem. I even tried a system restore to 2 weeks ago.

Does anyone have an idea as to why this is happening? I really need to get this resolved pronto.

Thanks,
Steve

Have you tried updating the firmware on that drive? That usually fixes a lot of problems. Other than that, swap out a known good dvd drive and try it, if it works, you know the other drive is busted.

Nasty

Thanks for the info, and the offer kleinkinstein. I've already tried another sertified good drive I bought, but got the same result. Gave the newest drive to a guy I work with and he's going to try it in his laptop tonight just to make sure the drive is good. Haven't tried updating the drive firmware, because the other drive failed the same way - 2 drives with failed firmware?? I suppose it's possible, but not very likely.

If my bud says the drive tested good in his system, I'll probably try replacing the system board. I already have one that I swapped out of this laptop several months ago. Was trying to resolve a different problem, but the system board wasn't it problem, so it should be good.

Dell was trying to get me to re-install Windows, but I doubt that's the problem, besides, I didn't have a recent backup and didn't want to chance mucking things up more than they already are.

Come to think of it, I may have the original drive in tact somewhere. A couple of years ago, I swapped out the original drive for an SSD. If Windows is the problem, the original drive should allow it to work.

Guess I have my work cut out for me tonight.

Thanks again for the advise,
Steve

kleinkinstein...WOW - thanks for all your research!

Haven't tried any of it yet, but wanted to post what I've found. I found my old hard drive, and a backup image I created with Acronis True Image - about a year and a half old. After imaging the old drive, I installed it and the CD/DVD drive works perfectly, so it has to be software. I'm embarassed to say that I haven't backed up since then, so to simply restore that drive I'll loose too much stuff that will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to replace.

Whether it's a Windows file, driver, or something else, I don't know, but something happened within the last 2 weeks to cause this problem. The only thing I can think of that's changed, is that last week I was visiting a friend in North Carolina, and connected to his wireless network to keep up with e-mail - hope I didn't get some sort of virus, but everything else is working fine and he's not complaining of any problems. Maybe I'll try burning something with Roxio instead of XP's wizard first. That could narrow it down to Windows itself.

I'll also go through your links and see what I can come up with. Getting a little late, so might not get through it all tonight, but will definitely (note that it is spelled correctly) post the results.

Thanks again,
Steve

Well, it's all fixed!

I tried burning a CD using Roxio, and it worked fine. So it had to be something in Windows.

I went through the links you sent, and while I didn't click on any of the Mr. Fixits, I read through what they were supposed to look for, and one of them suggested checking to see if the Recording tab in the drive's Properties page was present. I checked mine, and the Recording tab was there, but to my supprise, the box to "Enable CD recording on this drive" was unchecked. How it got unchecked is a mystery to me. I can't remember ever being on the drive's properties page. I checked the box, and everything's working just as before.

All that work for a simple check box. Oh well, at least it working again and I can send those trace logs again.

Thanks for not giving up on this. Without those links you sent, God only know how long I may have been working on this, or to what extremes I may have gone.

Steve

I had a thought, would a repair install fixed this as well? This is my beef with OEMs now. As much as I like the system restore image, I don't have any fall through if I don't have a startup problem but I know something is wrong with Windows. I also have no way of knowing if using a retail disk would help.

Ah well.

OEM and Retail are two different key quays, one won't work with the other disk.

SFC may have fixed the problem, however you would have to do windows update after you are done....the files on the dvd are way out of date.

Nasty

I don't think a repair install would have worked, though I guess it's possible if it's a Windows default. There was nothing that actually needed to be repaired. It was an "option" that wasn't enabled. It worked fine 2 weeks ago, was on vacation last week, this week it wouldn't work.

As I said earlier, how it got unchecked is a mystery to me. I didn't even know that tab existed.

Steve

A non destructive install (Repair) sets everything to windows default as if from the factory, so that box would have been checked after you were done. SFC would not have done this unless that program was corrupt and it replaced it.

Nasty

Okay, thanks for the tip. I'll try to remember that, but then again...

At this point though, I'm just glad it's working again.

Steve