ronni said:
Hi
I have an Advent 3518 (well someone has to!) running XP Home. Both
optical drives are recognised on Device Manager, etc, but only the
writer will recognise a disk - the normal CD/DVD drive won't read.
As a mere woman, has anyone any ideas, please (apart from buy a
decent computer!).
Cheers
Ronni
There's a good possibility that the drive is actually bad. However, you
should try different disks in in first. Try playing a pre-recorded music CD
in it. Then pop in an installation disk for some kind of software. For
example, if you've got a game or an office app., put the install disk in the
CD/DVD drive and see if the installation program starts (you can always
cancel it). What you need to do is test the suspect drive with multiple
disks that were NOT written on a computer burner, but rather pressed at a
factory. A DVD movie rented from blockbuster or whatever would be a good
test, if you've got DVD playing software installed on the system.
If you've verified that several factory pressed disks won't read, then
you've likely got a bad drive. The good news is, a bad DVD drive is easy to
replace. There should be two or three connections on the back of it. There
is a long IDE data cable, a shorter 4-pin power cable, and MAYBE a small
audio cable attached to it. The drive will be held into the case by 2-4
screws on the sides of the drive. You might have to remove both side panels
of the case to get to the screws that hold the drive in. Then the drive
should slide right out the front of the case.
After you've bought a new drive, make sure that the new drive has its jumper
(on the back of the drive) set the same way the jumper on the back of the
OLD drive is set. The jumper will be master or slave, probably slave. But
just make sure that the jumper on the new drive is set the same as the OLD
drive was set. If it isn't, just pull it off with your fingernails and move
it to the proper position. Do this before the new drive is installed in the
case.
The new drive will install in the case the same way the old drive was
installed. You can even use the same screws that were holding the old
drive, if you want to. The cables (2 or 3) will go on the new drive exactly
the way they were installed on the old drive.
Replacing a optical drive is really one of the easiest repairs that can be
done on a PC. The only curve-ball is that some cases use drive rails to
mount optical drives. If so, then the old drive might slide right out the
front of the case after you release the little clips. In that case, just
take the drive rails off the old drive and screw them onto the new drive.
No problem.
If you do find it necessary to replace the optical drive, I'd suggest you
replace it with the following:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827140121
That is a good brand, includes good software, and has white or black bezels
(should match your case)
Yes, I know you already have a burner. But, this AOpen drive I linked above
does everything, all at a really reasonable price. There's nothing wrong
with having two burners. Think of it this way . . . even if your current
burner dies, you've got a backup!!! -Dave
