Help - DVD burner disappears

This hasn't happened very often (but then, I haven't burned many discs..) but it's happened a few times recently (actually, with the last two discs I've burned).

What happens is I insert a blank DVD+R, the drive simply disappears in Windows. The green light on the drive stays lit, and I cannot eject the disc. The only recourse (that I've found, anyway) is to restart the computer.

Don't know if this is a hardware problem, a disc problem (but the disc eventually burns fine.. and I don't have this problem using my desktop), or a Windows Vista problem (I have SP1 installed - but I had this issue before as well).

Any ideas? Warranty is almost up, so if it's a hardware problem.. I need to get it fixed soon :->

BTW: My machine is an Inspiron 1520.

 

Try re-seating the optical drive. Here is a guide

There appear to be some recent firmwares for the 1520. Please find the one for your optical drive model and see if this fixes it.

Downloads page for 1520

If neither work, it sounds like the optical drive is on its way out. Just get on the phone with Dell technical support and have them fix it before your warranty is gone.

 

I had that problem with the 1520. Turns out that Roxio gets really angry when it is un-installed. It leaves a mess behind on the computer as well.

Use my fix at your own risk.
and remember to back up the registry first.
I had to go clean up some of the registry entries. Namely removing the upper and lower filter settings from:
For Vista:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
For XP its something like:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}


click run, type regedit and surf to that reg key. Then delete the contents of the upperfilters and lowerfilters keys.
Before messing with the registry remember to back it up, you can find instructions on how to back up and restore the registry form Microsoft's site. Also you may have to re-install whatever cd burner app your using afterward.

Good Luck

 

I have the same problem in a M1210 with Vista Ultimate x64... but those keys aren't present in my registry. (The same happens when I check for upper and lower filters with the tool of ImgBurn)
Any ideas? Should I change my drive? (warranty is gone) Any brand/model recommended?

 

First of all check if the drive is present in the device manager and check if its listed with any errors, if is not listed try checking if its present in bios, and reseat it.

 

It is present in the Bios. However, it disappears from the device manager each time it disappears from the explorer, and the red light stays turned on all the time. Ejection is not possible and just reseting or hibernating solves the problem. I have reinstalled the lastest firmware.
How could I reset the drive?

 

Make sure you have the proper drivers. It could be that the device drivers are not compatible with x64 windows.