Re: hard drive

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance

"Harold" <Harold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:911C96DE-9380-4992-B0FD-864A4926BA6D@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
i have a dell Inspiron B130, all stock like outta the box, and whenever i
put
in a DVD or Music CD they wont play. i cant burn, play, or anything with
the
CD drive. nothin pulls up on screen to play through any one of my programs
on
my computer like musicmatch. some people have told me to call dell support
about it and need to get a new hard drive.

Mostly tryin to save money but if thats what i have to do then ill get
one.

Thanks

It's not very likely that hard disk failure would lead to this.

However, *DVD* drive failure would. So would a loose or detached data or
power cable to that drive.

Does the DVD drive appear in Device Manager? If so, are there any
exclamation marks or error messages? What are they? Does it appear in the
BIOS?

If it doesn't appear, shut the system down, and open the case. Remove and
reseat the data cables between the DVD drive and the motherboard (reseat
both ends) and then remove and reseat the power cable. Restart the system
and watch the DVDdrive light as the system starts, it should flash as the
drive is detected. Enter the BIOS to verify that the drive is detected
properly.

If this doesn't work, the drive may have failed; this happens. If the
system is in warranty, call Dell for a replacement. If it's not in
warranty, newer better drives can be had for under US$50 and are trivial to
install. It often takes under ten minutes.

You don't need to buy an entire kit, just the "bare" drive as you will have
all the mounting hardware with the old one.

Remove the old drive, set the jumpers and mounting hardware on the new one
exactly the same, and put it in. Connect the cables. Close the case and
you're done. The new drive will be automatically detected. You might
need to reboot once. You should not need to reinstall any software.

HTH
-pk


.

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