"Jan Alter" wrote in message
news:RQZXf.3021$aW5.2827@trndny07...
First find out if in fact it is still working by going into the bios and
changing the boot order to CD-ROM drive. Save the settings and put the
Windows installation disk into the drive. Reboot and see if the computer
will start from the disk. That should give you a clue to whether or not
the drive should be trashed.


Only useful if you have a bootable DVD! May well read CD OK as drives
use two seperate lasers for CD & DVD discs. Boot off Win98 startup siskette
with CDROM support and see if can read CD & DVD disc, if not, drive is
broke!
Mike.


If it does work then it's software related. Deleting the drive from the
system and allowing it to be refound by Windows may cure it.. If not you
may need to do a Google search through the Internet to see if there are
any problems with the drive, or just going to the Hitachi web site might
turn up answers to this mystery.

Jan Alter

"TheFinkel" wrote in message
oups.com...
I know Dell sucks, but bear with me:

I've had my Dell computer for about 2 yrs now, and about 6 months ago,
my DVD drive game me problems. It is still recognised by the computer
and is, according to the computer, in worling condition. Every time I
put a DVD into this drive, it will spin for about 5 seconds, and then
stop. When I click on the drive in My Computer, it says there is no
disk inserted. I have tried cleaning the lens many times, and don't
know what to do. any ideas?

Specs:
the drive is made by hitachi-LG . it is a HL-DT-ST DVD-ROM GDR8163B
it is NOT a DVD writer, only reads them.