DVD ROM drive read failures

[[AK]Clay]

Has anyone else have a DVD Drive just stop reading disks? My new alienware has been running fine for close to 2 weeks now. But tonight, the secondary DVD drive won't recognize anything I put in it. The device manage says all is well, so I'm not sure what's going on. I unstalled the drivers for it, but to no avail. Any ideas?

[[AK]StitchJones]

Jot down the Letter of the driver that isn't working. Then go into Device Manager and under the DVD/CD-Rom area. Right click and "Uninstall" the drive that is not working. Then shut down your computer. Pop open the case and Unplug the power connector for that drive. Boot up your computer and login. Let it sit idle for about two minutes then power it down and re-connect the power plug for that drive. Power the machine back up again and let windows perform it's Plug-N-Pray discovery. If all goes well it should snap your drive back into shape. If not it is possible you may have a bum drive.
I hope this helps.

[[AK]Nuts]

Also, just for giggles... look for a firmware update for the drive as well. Can't hurt.

[[AK]Clay]

Thanks for the tips guys. I tried the unplug and reboot, but it didn't work.

I'll try looking more into the firmware.

I am beginning to suspect something's wrong with the machnicals - it doesn't sound like it's even spinning up.