Hello I have Dell computer with HL-DT-ST DVD+-RW GSA-H73N SCSI CdRom Device...never had a problem with it now all of a sudden it wont recognize a blank disc...it will play a dvd movie with no problem...I uninstalled and then reinstalled the drivers which did nothing...also uninstalled the drive completely which didnt help either...any possible solutions would be appreciated
Did you format the disk?
Open up Disk Management. Right click in My Computer. Manage or type in diskmgmt.msc in Start menu/Run.
Right click on disk and select Format, unselect Quick Format and proceed, if not try Quick Format.
What are you trying to do? (ex: burn a CD, a DVD)
Sometimes the media is bad. If you just opened a new brand of disks this could be the case. Sometimes one brand of optical drive has trouble with one brand of media. You test this by using another brand of media.
If you can rule out the media then you try the various Fixes from Microsoft.
Ex: Your CD or DVD drive can't read or write media
Your CD drive or DVD drive is missing or is not recognized by Windows or other programs
If the usual fixes do not work, and you have uninstalled and reinstalled as you have then it strongly indicates that one or more functions of the drive has died. Things like the lasers themselves can just blink out at any moment like a light bulb.
You can test another optical drive in your computer if you can borrow one, or just buy another drive.
Also check from the Dell Support site whether there is any updated firmware for your drive. ( I could get this Drivers and Downloads | Dell [United States] but I suggest that you input the Service tag number of your machine and search.)
This can be caused by unplugging a USB flash drive without safely "ejecting" it first. Apparently if you don't follow proper procedures before removing a USB flash drive it can cause conflicts with DVD burner functionality. Try inserting a flash drive and then "eject" it when it says it is safe to do so and the issue may correct itself. Hope this helps.
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