# Dell Inspiron and DVDs

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dell-inspiron-and-dvds/382430>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 1, 2006, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dell-inspiron-and-dvds/382430 "2006-12-01T02:37:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![username\_taken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/c0e974/32.png) [@username\_taken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/username_taken)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dell-inspiron-and-dvds/382430/1 "2006-12-01T02:37:05Z")

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Not sure this belongs here, but how many out there have an Inspiron that will out of nowhere just stop seeing DVDs? I thought of posting a General Question asking for help with this. But instead I wonder how many others out there have had this problem. I have 2 great movies at my lap right now and I can’t play either one. I’ve tried the spaghetti approach that is Dell’s online help (I swear there are hundreds of pages online that point to each other only to direct elsewhere). So now I’m stuck listening to iTunes and posting this. If only I had cell access here to call Dell direct. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

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**Author:** ![troubledwater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f4b2a3/32.png) [@troubledwater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/troubledwater)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dell-inspiron-and-dvds/382430/2 "2006-12-01T03:00:39Z")

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When you say it doesn’t see them, do you mean that your explorer window says drive x: or whatever is empty, or that the application you use to play DVDs doesn’t see it?

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**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dell-inspiron-and-dvds/382430/3 "2006-12-01T03:02:21Z")

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I’m not sure where this goes, but it certainly is not a debate.

If you’re looking for random views from other posters, it would be better off in **IMHO**. On the off chance that you actually were hoping for a technical solution to your problem, I am sending it to **General Questions**.

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**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dell-inspiron-and-dvds/382430/4 "2006-12-01T05:20:20Z")

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I don’t have a Inspiron , but I do have an HP whose cd-writer/DVD-Rom drive now only reads the DVDs. It doesn’t think anything is in the drive when a CD is there, though it grinds as though it’s attempting to read something. Using a cleaner didn’t help, so clearly it is broken in some way. Is your computer still under warrenty? Sadly mine is not.

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**Author:** ![crazyjoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@crazyjoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crazyjoe)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dell-inspiron-and-dvds/382430/5 "2006-12-01T16:15:49Z")

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This happened to my Compaq laptop recently as well. It was determined that the drive needed to be replaced.