The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    DVD drive issues...

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by kenichols29, Feb 28, 2011.

  1. kenichols29

    kenichols29 Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    7
    Messages:
    339
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Hi I have been having issues with my dvd drive. It is reading disks but then it will stop and I cant eject. When I hit the eject button my computer makes a funny noise and freezes up for 20 seconds. Then If i try to shut down it takes up to 10 minutes to log off, but once it logs off I can eject the disc and everything seems to run fine. The problem is also becoming more frequent and the last time it happened it wouldnt log off.
     
    kenichols29, Feb 28, 2011
    #1
  2. ReaperWolf

    ReaperWolf Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    45
    Messages:
    277
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    well if worse comes to worse.. there is a pin sized hole on the actual dvd tray, next to the button you press to eject it. take a paper clip or needle and manually eject it.
     
    ReaperWolf, Feb 28, 2011
    #2
  3. TurbodTalon

    TurbodTalon Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    1,392
    Messages:
    3,147
    Likes Received:
    158
    Trophy Points:
    131
    This was happening to me on my R1. Can't remember for the life of me how I resolved it. My suggestion would be to go into the Device Manager and uninstall the drive. Get the driver from the Dell website CD/DVD drivers, and install it that way.
     
    TurbodTalon, Mar 1, 2011
    #3
  4. kenichols29

    kenichols29 Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    7
    Messages:
    339
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    I tried to install the driver from the driver page but it requires a .bin file that dell doesnt provide inorder to install the firmware update.
     
    kenichols29, Mar 1, 2011
    #4
  5. kenichols29

    kenichols29 Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    7
    Messages:
    339
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Sorry but the m17x r2 is slot loading and doesnt have a pinhole for ejecting it. Plus the button to eject is on a touch panel, not on the drive itself.
     
    kenichols29, Mar 1, 2011
    #5
  6. nzgeek

    nzgeek Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    130
    Messages:
    352
    Likes Received:
    15
    Trophy Points:
    31
    I have this problem too from time to time. It appears to be triggered when you attempt to eject the disc while it's still being read. Once triggered, you won't be able to access the disc, and any attempt to eject the disc will freeze the computer for a few seconds and nothing else.

    I've found that when you're in this state, you can often right-click the disc in Windows Explorer and hit Eject. For some reason the soft-eject works, and the drive starts acting normally again.

    I don't know if this problem is specific to our systems, or if it's a wider issue with Windows 7 and certain optical drives. I've got a colleague with a non-Dell system that had the same issue, so maybe it is a wider problem.
     
    nzgeek, Mar 1, 2011
    #6
  7. kenichols29

    kenichols29 Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    7
    Messages:
    339
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Sounds about the same. Mine seems to be getting worse. It happens more frequently and I cant get it to eject through windows explorer.

    I wish dell would post the a firmware update for this drive. They have a program to update the firmware but it is useless without the firmware file.
     
    kenichols29, Mar 3, 2011
    #7