[romeoluzzi]

RECEIVED A RESPONSE TO THIS PORTION WHICH WILL HOPEFULLY CURE THE PROBLEM) This problem is almost identical on 2 different computers. I have a new Dell Vostro 420 that came with Vista pre-installed. Is an business computer and we prefer XP - cleaned the hard drive using fdisk and then tried to boot off a CD (Windows XP re-installation CD with service pack 2). Also tried using a CD that was non-specific to a manufacturer. Neither CD will read and is not recognized by the computer.

NOW COULD USE HELP WITH THE FOLLOWING:

I also have a Dell Inspiron 5100 that also came with Vista and worked well and read both CDs and DVDs. Did the same thing with it. Cleaned and reformated the hard drive with fdisk and then tried to install XP from a CD - the laptop did not recognize it. Had to copy the installation CD to a bootable DVD and it worked and I got XP loaded on the laptop, but it will not read a CD. It recognizes DVDs and did recognize CD when Vista was installed.

Does anyone have idea as to why this occurs and is there a way to fix it.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.
Ron

[6rgwa]

Have I understood right that it is not possible to read CDs even on boot?

[romeoluzzi]

Yes, you understand correctly. I had to make a bootable dvd of the Windows XP installation cd for it to work. Now it will still only read dvds, doesn't even recognize that a cd is in the drive. From what I can find, it appears that I have piece of crap combo drive (HL-DT-ST RW/DVD GCC-4241N). There are suggestions for deleting registry entries or to just purchase a new drive.

Thanks for your response.

[6rgwa]

Well, it seems, like error is not in combo drive, because you've said it worked fine with windows vista. I havent encountered such error yet, but I reinstalled my Dell Latitude d505 notebook three times and never had any problem. If we assume you didn't changed BIOS settings and with previous OS it worked, then it might be fdisk. My idea is, that there is something like hidden partition or special MBR which was lost. You can also try firmware update, BIOS update, removing hard drive or different drive as you said. I'm sorry I can't help you more.

[CyberSoldier]

6rwga is right......on alot of new systems there is a special partition which is not recognised by fdisk, this partition contains alot of BIOS and driver settings, they created it so that a laptop/pc would have all of its drivers even if the HDD was Formatted (this obviously means that you will not need to download/backup any drivers)

the inspiron would of almost definatly had this partition installed but im not 100% if you bought it directly from dell then contact them.....always let the manafacturer know if their products are causing you grief. most companies employ entire teams to deal with this, keep them in the job.

Im afraid this is all the "help" i can give you, but it sure does sound like you have removed something.

although just to make sure..... you have updated the drivers right ?

if your not sure your in luck, because they are both dells you can go here and enter your service tag, which SHOULD be located underneath the laptop.

you will then be given a list of drivers and utilities that are actaually specific to YOUR dell... and i mean that literally, when you put the service tag in their computers are instantly given a list of your computers specifications (as built and shipped) obviously if it has been modded or had parts changed at all this could cause a problem.


if all else fails then there is a registry fix which was given to me by bigbear to help me fix a "missing" cd drive. now im no expert at this but i beleive it could fix your problem

Create a text file with NOTEPAD containing the following data exactly as below and name it FIXCD.REG
You should have 3 boxes on the bottom in NOTEPAD.
1)Filename : fixcd.reg
2)Save as type: all files
3)Encoding: ANSI
If you do not change it from txt type to All files type, then the file will actually be fixcd.reg.txt, this won't accomplish the desired result

Double click on the file and say yes to the merge into registry question.

----------------------- Use text after this line, contents of FIXCD.REG -----------------------------
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}]
"UpperFilters"=-
"LowerFilters"=-

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdr4_2K]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdralw2k]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdudf]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\UdfReadr]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdr4_xp]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdudf_XP]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\UdfReadr_xp]
------------------------------ Use text before this line -----------------------------



really really hope this helps you (once again credits to bigbear for the fix)

[nat23]

romeoluzzi - could you please tell me the method you used to copy the installation CD to a bootable DVD. I also have a Dell Inspiron 5100 that will read DVDs, but not CDs.....and need to reinstall OS.

[6rgwa]

For this reason is there utility called nlite, which can also slipstream service pack and remove various parts of installation. You should try recovering hidden partitions first, so you can use cd again.