[snyguy]

Here's my situation: I just got this laptop secondhand from my uncles company and we don't know the password to log in to windows so I am going to put a new operating system on it. I have a windows XP professional CD, but I just realized that the drive isn't reading cds (It read about 2 out of 15 when I tried). I checked it out and it seems that it reads all dvds though. I don't really want to buy a new drive because I don't really need it beyond loading the operating system and it was priced at $70 minimum. The laptop is a dell inspiron 5100.

My first question is whether or not anyone has any suggestions as to how I could attempt to fix the drive.

Second question is if anyone knows a way to solve the problem without fixing the drive...
-Is there any way to connect an external drive that could be recognized by BIOS and would be able to use to load theoperating system?
-Is it possible to copy a windowsXP cd to a DVD and retain the functionality of the disc?
- Any suggestions?

Any suggestions, comments, etc. would be great. Thanks!

Edited by snyguy, 09 October 2007 - 08:47 AM.

[Advertisements]

If the CD laser's gone, its not worth messing with, it will be cheaper to replace the drive.

External drive - in theory yes, but not always possible, some laptop providers don't like you doing this.
XP on DVD - not directly, you'd need to rip it to a hard drive, make a new image for DVD compatibility and burn that. You can't just dump a CD image on a DVD and expect it to work.

[Neil Jones]

If the CD laser's gone, its not worth messing with, it will be cheaper to replace the drive.

External drive - in theory yes, but not always possible, some laptop providers don't like you doing this.
XP on DVD - not directly, you'd need to rip it to a hard drive, make a new image for DVD compatibility and burn that. You can't just dump a CD image on a DVD and expect it to work.

[Adrenalin]

Would copying the XP cd onto a DVD perhaps work? Give that a try

[Murray S.]

Would copying the XP cd onto a DVD perhaps work? Give that a try

Did you read what Neil posted? You can't just copy XP to a DVD.

Murray

[Adrenalin]

I just got back from work, excuse my ignorance

My brain shuts down after half past four

[Adrenalin]

I went searching [again] coz i like to learn, and found this:

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I had the same problem. I could fix it going to the Sony support web site: http://sony.storages...diagnostics.htm There I found a software to test your CD drive. After downloading it and installing my CD-RW was working again.

Good luck.


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then this ...

I turned off the DMA setting on one of my 2 drives and I can now access Music CD's in Explorer and also rip to MP3's but playback of the actual disc is no good as without DMA it judders all the way through. The one with DMA still set will not play Music or access any music disc without a lock up. Still, progress of sorts. Anybody have any comments?

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would be interesting to see if you can fix this and how you did it? some people say it is the actual drive, others say it isnt...

[Neil Jones]

That fix only applies if you can get into Windows and Device Manager in the first place. From your original post you can't get this far, therefore its a no-go solution

[Adrenalin]

grief! lol.



I had a bad day at the office when i replied to this post. sheesh.

snyguy let us know if it works pls so we can help others

Edited by Adrenalin, 12 October 2007 - 12:43 PM.

[snyguy]

Thanks guys! I at least know my options now. I found a drive on ebay for pretty cheap so hopefully the new drive will work.