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Various Hardware Issues DVD/USB

895 views 6 replies 3 participants last post by  Rich-M 
#1 ·
Not sure if these are related or not, but my PC is having various hardware issues. I'm using a Dell Inspiron 1100, running Windows XP SP 2. It has a 2ghz Celeron processor and 256MB of RAM. The machine is connected to a Vantec Lapcool 4 cooling station, which has 3 2.0 USB Ports, an SD/MMC Card reader, an MS/MS PRO slot, an SM slot, and a CF/CF II/MD slot. I am not sure if the two USB ports on the Dell itself are 1.0 or 2.0. I also use a Lexmark X75 Prin-Treo printer, connected via USB. Finally, I had a virtual DVD drive installed, but removed it hoping to fix at least part of these problems with no luck. Here are my issues:
  • DVD drive won't read DVDs. It reads audio and data discs just fine, but won't detect a DVD for some reason. I thought the virtual drive was causing this, but removing it didn't help.
  • USB/SD Card Reader issues. After successfully using my SD card reader once, I used the Safely Remove function before taking out the SD card, and noticed that the entire cooling station was "stopped" for removal. Since then, I can't get the card reader to read the SD card, even though the fans on the cooling station appear to be working fine. I tried disconnecting the entire device and removing all the USB drivers from my system. Oddly, even after doing this, the machine loaded 4 USB ports even though there are only two built in. The other removable storage devices (MS, SM, CF) are not recognized until I reconnect the cooling station.
  • Printer. After going through the process described above with my cooling station, the printer reinstalled 3 new "copies" of its driver rather than the ones previous there. So now when I print, I am using "Copy 2" and "Copy 3" rather than the original driver and original "Copy" I used before. Not a big deal, but I thought it might illuminate the problem a bit.

I don't know if this stuff is related or if my machine is just getting to old to work well. The cooling station does come with its own power supply, but I'm confused about why the SD reader would work fine the first time but then require additional power. Needless to say, the DVD drive is my biggest concern, so any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
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#5 ·
Ok I'd guess if it has problems reading manufactured movie DVD's it will have the same problem with DVD R and DVD RW but give it a try anyway to make sure.
 
#7 ·
cmcnally said:
No luck with a DVD-R. Still fails to read the disc. It wouldn't perplex me except that the drive has no problem reading non-DVD discs. That makes me think there's a fixable issue as opposed to just an old broken drive.
No not really the dvd uses a different laser than the cd so that suggests the drive is shot.
You could try a cleaner through it.
None of the rest of this sounds very healthy either. You might be heading for motherboard issues here.
 
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