[swish54]

I have an older Dell C600 That works fine for what it is but the cd-rom drive stopped working. The thing starts up, you can hear it whine, then slows down & stops...When I go to my computer it doesn't show a D drive but it used to...Any thoughts on this?

Dell C600
Pentium III
701 MHz
256 MB RAM
XP Pro SP2

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http://support.dell....g.htm#wp1084976

Run the Dell diagnostics please.

See what that tells you if anything.

Is the device shown in Device Manager which is Start, right click My Computer and click Properties, click the hardware tab, click the device manager tab

If neither of these produce a result see this please is the device shown in the BIOS setup.
http://support.dell....p.htm#wp1108627

MY APOLOGIES I SEARCHED BY ERROR ON DELL D600 instead of C600 you need the special Dell disc that came with the computer to run the diagnostics. If you have it pls post and I will give you the instructions for the C600 or alternatively you can find them yourself on the Dell site link I gave you but go back and search C600

Device Manager and BIOS setup are still relevant

Edited by Macboatmaster, 23 September 2010 - 05:44 PM.

[Macboatmaster]

http://support.dell....g.htm#wp1084976

Run the Dell diagnostics please.

See what that tells you if anything.

Is the device shown in Device Manager which is Start, right click My Computer and click Properties, click the hardware tab, click the device manager tab

If neither of these produce a result see this please is the device shown in the BIOS setup.
http://support.dell....p.htm#wp1108627

MY APOLOGIES I SEARCHED BY ERROR ON DELL D600 instead of C600 you need the special Dell disc that came with the computer to run the diagnostics. If you have it pls post and I will give you the instructions for the C600 or alternatively you can find them yourself on the Dell site link I gave you but go back and search C600

Device Manager and BIOS setup are still relevant

Edited by Macboatmaster, 23 September 2010 - 05:44 PM.

[Macboatmaster]

http://support.dell....wap_devices_off

The correct link for your Dell

Edited by Macboatmaster, 23 September 2010 - 05:44 PM.

[swish54]

Thanks, I don't have the disk but am checking with the dell website...Will post what I find...Your response is greatly appreciated

[Macboatmaster]

I am signing off now, please check the device manager and setup as mentioned in my post and leave the results.
I will pick it up later today 1900 or so UK time

[swish54]

Dell site was no help, at least so far..I went to bios and it shows a CD_ROM there, didn't change any settings but when I hit esc to exit I got a black screen that says no bootable device selected, strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility...I get the same screen when I strike F1 and F2 sends me to setup utility...I turned it off manually and rebooted but get the same screen...Has to be something simple, hope someone can help.

UPDATE: Black screen with no bootable device selected has been fixed.

Edited by swish54, 27 September 2010 - 12:53 PM.

[wannabe1]

Hello swish54...

Sounds like something has set filters on the drive.

Click Start, then Run, type regedit and click "Ok"

In the left pane, expand (click +) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, then SYSTEM, then CurrentControlSet, then Control, then Class, and click on {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

In the right pane, are UpperFilters and/or LowerFilters listed?

wannabe1

[swish54]

Hi wannabe 1, Thanks for trying to help and sorry for just now replying, been out of town...Went through the steps you suggested, no filters found...Next step?

[The Skeptic]

Take the drive out, clean the contacts and put it back in place.Judging by your first post It sounds to me like a loose or dirty connection.

[swish54]

Not sure how to clean the contacts...I can hear the device run when a disc is loaded, it speeds up and then slows after a few seconds, then stops...Would it do that if connection is bad?

[Macboatmaster]

Go to the link I sent you for the Dell, in post 3. It explains it all there.
Presuming that the CD drive is in the modular bay

Edited by Macboatmaster, 28 September 2010 - 12:01 PM.

[wannabe1]

Sorry for the delay in replying. I didn't receive a notification for either of your posts.

I'm leaning towards a bad drive. Let's get Windows to reinstall it and see if that helps. Open Device Manager (Start > Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Device Manager......OR.....Start > Control Panel > Device Manager). Expand (click the little triangle) the DVD/CD-ROM drives section, right click on your optical drive and choose Uninstall...accept the change.

Reboot and let Windows reinstall the device...then reboot again.

Any change?

[The Skeptic]

Generally speaking I tend to agree with wannabe1 but I concentrate specifically on the electric connections which might be in less then ideal condition (older laptop). To clean the contacts you can use contact-cleaning spray or just pull out and push the drive in a number of times. This will scrape the contacts and loosen dirt and oxides.

[swish54]

Device manager doesn't show a cd-rom drive...Under disk drives it shows IBM-DJSA-210 but that is my hard drive right?

[Macboatmaster]

Yes that is your HDD.
I asked in post 2, if the device was shown in device manager.
Is there an unknown device shown.