DVD-RW Drive... Dead

[Him]

I was watching TV on my computer, and burning a dvd (like I always do) and my computer randomly restarted. Damn, I thought. But it happens, so I was only upset cuz I lost a blank dvd and they cost like a buck a peice. Anyway, so it booted back up and I got an error that there was no dvd drive detected on my machine. I looked at the drive, and no lights, and it wont work. It dosent open or anything. So I restarted, and half way into windows it restarted again. And again, and again. I think it did it 3 or 4 times halfway loading Windows. Now I'm in Windows, and I'm updating it to see whats the dilly. But my DVD drive still does not work. I dont think I got any power surges, and I have power strips. Let them be cheap ones, but power strips nonetheless. Everything else appears to be in working order, as I'm not getting any errors. Any ideas? This is like nothign I've seen before. I thought I was going to be stuck ina reboot, but I got lucky. But i did lose my optical drive. Depressing, to say the least.

 

[Blackmoore]

Well, look at the bright side, you can get a DVD-RW 4 times as fast as the old one now

 

[Him]

Quite the optimist, arent we? Yeah, I supose I could do that. Fund are pretty thin right now though, so getting it working would be ideal.

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

Honestly they break because their built very cheaply

It's far more of a hassle to fix it than to replace it...

 

[Him]

I've never had a drive die on me like this though.

 

[The_Shocker]

cheap

they sell cheap

 

[digitaloracle]

That is a bit odd. Is the drive recognized in BIOS? Try booting (with a CD) off of it. No lights seems very ominous, but check the power lead just to be sure, And if it looks good, power the drive with a completely different lead (as in different strand from the PSU). Better yet, try it in a different computer. If it still doesn't work, then chances are it truly is dead.

Funny side story:
I was (and still am) fixing a neighbor's computer when both optical drives vansihed from windows. Hardware manager reported an error (code 41), and by all appearances they didn't work in windows. But, I could boot off one (didn't try the other), and both were detected in BIOS. So alled Dell. After around an hour and a half of trying everything from clearing the mobo RAM to unplugging the devices, but almost nothing from within windows, the tech determined the drives were broken and dispatched new ones, despite my saying that they were functioning in BIOS, etc. Heh, I thought. Now I can get some free drives. Anyway, today I got them both working with a regestry edit. Granted, they dont see a disc very well unless I reboot windows, but that sounds like a windows problem, not a drive issue. But the new drives are still on their way. I'll wait and see if they want the "broken" ones returned but if not...

Good luck Him

 

[Him]

I cant even open the drive. It's light is not working. Even when I restart, still no light and no drive opening. I am going to try differentplugs and stuff, but I'm using my computer right now and I can shut it down at the moment.