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General discussion

Inspiron 1526 DVD/CD drive not reading/writing any discs!

Dec 23, 2009 8:40PM PST

I have a Dell Inspiron 1526 with an Optiarc DVD+-RW AD-5560A ATA DVD/CD drive. I am running Vista

Overnight the Drive has stopped working.

It won't read ANY disc.

It won't write to ANY blank disc.

It whirs then stops then whirs and stops again.

The drive simply doesn't acknowledge there is a disc in it.

I have installed and reinstalled the dvd drive - but still nothing - won't play any discs

Have tried many diff discs to try to get it to read and many diff brands of blanks discs to get it to write with no success!

Am at the point where I think I need to buy a new DVD drive - but just want to make sure there are no other avenues to try first.

Thanks for any help!

Any help greatly appreciated.

Cheers Evan

Discussion is locked

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Have you replaced the drive yet?
Dec 24, 2009 12:08AM PST

I know many need to grieve over failed drives so I'm very patient about it and let others go through the six steps. But for me I know the signs and will slip in a new drive early so I can skip at least 4 of the steps.
Bob

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Have you tried....?
Dec 24, 2009 9:44PM PST

The Dell diagnostics (F12)?
Reading a disc in safe mode?
Deleting the upper and lower filters?

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Yes I have.
Dec 24, 2009 10:29PM PST

It didn't help. The good news is replacement drives are cheap if you do this yourself.