Dell 4500 Mail, Modem, and Internet Problems, CD drive problems, DVD drive problems

NOTICE: Do not attempt to clean drive heads with a swab. You may accidentally misalign the heads, which can render the drive inoperable.

Clean the drive — Use a commercially available cleaning kit.

CD drive problems

HINT: High-speed CD drive vibration is normal and may cause noise. This does not indicate a defect in the drive or the CD.

Adjust the Windows volume control — Click the speaker icon in the lower-right corner of your screen.

•Ensure that the volume is turned up by clicking the slidebar and dragging it up.

•Ensure that the sound is not muted by clicking any boxes that are checked.

Test the drive with another CD — Insert another CD to eliminate the possibility that the original CD is defective.

Check the speakers and subwoofer — See "Sound and Speaker Problems."

Ensure that Windows recognizes the drive — Click the Start button, and then click My Computer. If the CD drive is not listed, perform a full scan with your antivirus software to check for and remove viruses. Viruses can sometimes prevent Windows from recognizing the drive.

Clean the disc — See the Tell Me How help file for instructions on cleaning your CDs.

Problems writing to a CD-RW drive

Close other programs — The CD-RW drive must receive a steady stream of data when writing. If the stream is interrupted, an error occurs. Try closing all programs before writing to the CD-RW.

See the CD-RW program's Help file for CD-RW recording instructions — See the CD-RW program's online help information for complete instructions on how to record CD-RWs.

DVD drive problems

HINT: Because of different regions worldwide and different disc formats, not all DVD titles work in all DVD drives.

Test the drive with another DVD — Insert another DVD to eliminate the possibility that the original DVD is defective.

Ensure that Windows recognizes the drive — Click the Start button, and then click My Computer. If the DVD drive is not listed, perform a full scan with your antivirus software to check for and remove viruses. Viruses can sometimes prevent Windows from recognizing the drive.

Clean the disc — See the Tell Me How help file for instructions on cleaning your DVDs.

Hard drive problems

Run Check Disk

1.Click the Start button, and then click My Computer.

2.Right-click the drive letter (local disk) that you want to scan for errors, and then click Properties.

3.Click the Tools tab.

4.Under Error-checking, click Check Now.

5.Click Start.

E-Mail, Modem, and Internet Problems