Dell desktop plays CD's fine, but will not read DVDs?

6 thoughts on “Dell desktop plays CD's fine, but will not read DVDs?”

1. Dook says:

   February 24, 2010 at 5:36 pm

   If you couldn’t find it on Dell site easy, you could try a program I use. It automatically updates your drivers, saves me a lot of time and frustration. Take a look here for those drivers.
   http://www.dell-drivers.org/

2. Rhyled says:

   February 24, 2010 at 5:36 pm

   The service tech isn’t lying. The laser used for DVD reading/writing is a different wavelength than that used for CDs. The DVD laser diode may be obscured while the CD is clean

3. MB says:

   February 24, 2010 at 5:36 pm

   You can uninstall the DVD drive in Device Manager, then restart the computer, Windows will recognize the drive and reinstall the driver for it. This will tell you if the driver was at fault. If the drive still won’t read DVDs then it is faulty.
   If it’s bad you could buy a new internal DVD ROM drive, they are cheaper and faster than an external USB drive.

4. dziekuje says:

   February 24, 2010 at 5:36 pm

   Unfortunately I suspect that the guy from dell is correct. I have heard that cd cleaners can screw the lenses on dvd players and have been warned not to do it.

   If it is a desktop just buy a new combo – they are probably just as cheap if not cheaper than an external and you don’t have any more clutter on your desk. If you can use a screwdriver then you can change the drive yourself. Just make sure it is unplugged from the mains

5. DJ WinGs says:

   February 24, 2010 at 5:36 pm

   Stick with the External DVD burner. Don’t waste your money unless you know you have the specs of the computer. It is more than likely that the internal burner is shot, and will totally bust on you. Use the enternal for the time being until you get the required speck of the motherboard and ask for another internal DVD burner from the manufacturer, or hit up fry’s for another one. also keep the External for backup purposes.

6. Charlie Tuna says:

   February 24, 2010 at 5:36 pm

   It may be a long shot, but worth the try – download one of these free DVD players (or even a trial version will do for testing) on download.com. Pop in your DVD (an original is best) and see if it plays.

   Search for any of these 3 players in download.com
   The KMPlayer
   GOM Media Player
   Total Video Player

   It happened to my sister in law, and apparently the problem was a corrupted media player due to an improperly applied update of some sort. Her laptop also played music CDs fine. I can’t recall the free (no shareware) DVD player I installed on her laptop, but I’m sure I found it in download.com. She could not play DVDs using WMP either.

   I hope this helps (or maybe not, because you’ve already spent your money on an external DVD player? 😉

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