Dell Inspiron laptop unable to read DVDs

Now try the same USB DVD drive on another working PC. Try to play the same DVDs both on the internal optical drive and the USB DVD drive. Report what happens.

jumanji said:

Now try the same USB DVD drive on another working PC. Try to play the same DVDs both on the internal optical drive and the USB DVD drive. Report what happens.

Assuming the same USB drive and DVD are used here:

Another computer can play the DVD either using the optical drive or using the external usb drive - insert disc, autoplay function kicks in, dvd plays.

My laptop cannot detect a dvd in either drive. When I use my laptop's optical drive, the disc spins up, but at no point does the laptop recognise a dvd is in there. When I use the external usb drive, the laptop recognises the external drive (shows up as E:\ in "My Computer"), but again cannot detect the presence of a DVD disc.

Have you at anytime thought of reinstalling Windows from the Dell Recovery Disks/OEM disk/ and in their absence a clean install and activation with the sticker COA key (assuming it is still readable)?

What is your take on this as a means of possibly resolving this problem?

jumanji said:

Have you at anytime thought of reinstalling Windows from the Dell Recovery Disks/OEM disk/ and in their absence a clean install and activation with the sticker COA key (assuming it is still readable)?

What is your take on this as a means of possibly resolving this problem?

Well yeah it's something I could try, I have the recovery disks (somewhere). Seems very OTT for what should be a simple problem I'd have thought.

To be honest, if that was literally the only option, I'd probably just leave it and settle for having a laptop with no DVD functionality.

I just can't get my head around why my laptop would just randomly lose the ability to detect a DVD, but nothing else. All USB ports are fine, it can read CDs and data disks. Just not a DVD. I was sold on the idea of the drive being faulty/needing cleaning/needing replacing, but then the external drive didn't work either...

There are inevitably certain class of problems which are not amenable for a diagnosis from a distance.

What will be required in these cases is a physical examination by knowledgeable professionals who can try hardware substitution and detailed OS examination to arrive at a diagnosis and implement remedial measures. At times it goes by trial and error.

The manufacturer and their support team may well be aware of certain problems that may frequently creep into their machines. I do not know where you live and how reachable is DELL Technical support. If it is, you can access them for their views on this problem and any solutions.That is another option before you go ahead with a reinstall.

jumanji said:

There are inevitably certain class of problems which are not amenable for a diagnosis from a distance.

What will be required in these cases is a physical examination by knowledgeable professionals who can try hardware substitution and detailed OS examination to arrive at a diagnosis and implement remedial measures. At times it goes by trial and error.

The manufacturer and their support team may well be aware of certain problems that may frequently creep into their machines. I do not know where you live and how reachable is DELL Technical support. If it is, you can access them for their views on this problem and any solutions.That is another option before you go ahead with a reinstall.

Yeah I'd considered taking it in, but ultimately the problem is either going to be something silly (i.e. a box needs ticking, drivers aren't installed correctly, etc) or a hardware issue (i.e. a faulty drive which needs replacing). The latter would be cheaper than having a tech look at it (my warranty with Dell has expired).

I'll continue to look into it, I just wanted to touch base here again to see if anyone had any fresh ideas I hadn't considered. Thanks for your input.

As you said it may be quite a simple thing which we may have overlooked.

We still do not know what DVDs you were trying to play. If those are copy-protected movie DVDs, check the region code setting for your drive by going into Device Manager and looking into properties of the optical drive.

You may also check your drive with data DVDs and see whether you can access.

If it is a burner, put a blank DVD-RW and check whether it is recognised and you can burn.

jumanji said:

As you said it may be quite a simple thing which we may have overlooked.

We still do not know what DVDs you were trying to play. If those are copy-protected movie DVDs, check the region code setting for your drive by going into Device Manager and looking into properties of the optical drive.

You may also check your drive with data DVDs and see whether you can access.

If it is a burner, put a blank DVD-RW and check whether it is recognised and you can burn.

Oh - I was trying to play media DVDs (i.e. a film/TV show/etc). They are legal copies, and the region is definitely correct.

The drive recognises a blank DVD (it automatically asks me if I want to write to it) and also recognises a DVD that has been written as a data disc (i.e. that has my itunes backup on).

The only thing it won't see/play is a media DVD such as a film or TV show. It's as though there isn't even a DVD in the drive.

I'd just like to update this with a fix - I have managed to restore my laptop's DVD-playing capabilities!

Having used DVD burning software in the past (Nero, Daemon Tools, etc), I wondered whether something might have messed up my drive allocations, permissions, etc. I opened up Disk Management in the Computer Management window, found the DVD drive, and remapped the drive letter to something that wasn't in use. Accepted all the changes, then reverted the mapping back to the original letter, and voila - fixed.

An unusual fix that worked. Good that you experimented with changing the drive letters. It still does not explain why an external DVD drive, which definitely would have got a different drive letter would not play DVDs.(Quite possible that the Daemon devoured those as stated below.:))

Whatever, my suspicion for all your woes centers squarely on Daemon Tools. It is known to create problems. Go to settings and disable creation of number of virtual drives. Enable it only when you want to use them. A better alternative will be Slysoft's Virtual Clone drive. Check whether it will satisfy your needs.
SlySoft Virtual CloneDrive

I would suggest that you periodically do a drive cleanup to remove all non-present drives, drive letters associated with such devices and registry entries pertaining to those. Nagging on non-existant drive

I shall be curious to know what all non-present devices it removed on its first run. Post a screenshot of the Window that gives out those details, if you can.

Happy viewing.