Dell RW491 Optical drive problems, Hardware Problems in the Windows Vista Operating System on

E N S U R E T H A T M I C R O S O F T W I N D O W S R E C O G N I Z E S T H E D R I V E —

•Click Start → Computer.

If the 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.

TE S T T H E D R I V E —

•Insert another floppy disk, CD, or DVD to eliminate the possibility that the original media is defective.

•Insert a bootable floppy disk and restart the computer.

C L E A N T H E D R I V E O R D I S K — See "Cleaning Your Computer" on page 40.

E N S U R E T H A T T H E CD O R DVD M E D I A I S S N A P P E D O N T O T H E S P I N D L E C H E C K T H E C A B L E C O N N E C T I O N S

C H E C K F O R H A R D W A R E I N C O M P A T I B I L I T I E S — See "Troubleshooting Software

and Hardware Problems in the Windows Vista® Operating System" on page 119.

R U N T H E D E L L D I A G N O S T I C S — See "Dell Diagnostics" on page 87.

Optical drive problems

NOTE: High-speed optical drive vibration is normal and may cause noise, which does not indicate a defect in the drive or the media.

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

Problems writing to a CD-RW or DVD+/-RW drive

C L O S E O T H E R P R O G R A M S — CD-RW and DVD+/-RW drives must receive a steady stream of data when writing. If the stream is interrupted, an error occurs. Try closing all programs before you write to the drive.

TU R N O F F S L E E P S T A T E I N W I N D O W S B E F O R E W R I T I N G T O A CD/DVD — See

"Using the Sleep Power State" on page 53 for information on Sleep state.

C H A N G E T H E W R I T E S P E E D T O A S L O W E R R A T E — See the help files for your CD

or DVD creation software.

Troubleshooting

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