Screen says " cannot prform this function while driving"

When you place a disc in the drive can you hear the disc spin up, if not then the DVD drive maybe faulty.
Try re-seating the DVD drive and if it still does not work then it is faulty and needs replacing.

Hello
First thing you do is to see what hard disc installed in your laptop. You can check that by checking it in your bios system. To check in your bios system first turn off your computer then press delete while your laptop is booting up. Then you will see if there is a hard disk detected in your lap top if there is a detected hard drive this means you have a problem in your windows installed in your lap top.
There is also a reason why those message appear if the first boot of your laptop is the CD/DVD ROM. Check you CD/DVD ROM if there a CD inside this may the first on to read while the laptop booting up. Remove the cd inside your CD/DVD ROM. Then restart your laptop. Check your hard disk connector it may have some loose contact thats why your laptop did not recognize the hard disc.
Hope this can help keep on touch with fixya. Hope to hear some testimonial from you. . .

You have a defective CD/DVD drive. All of the electromechanical functions controlled by the computer are working, and the head will seek, therefore the device manager is reporting that it works normally. As it fails to read your known good CDs and DVDs, the head is defective in some way.
You can perform this repair yourself. Replacement drives are getting downright cheap.
For instructions with helpful diagrams, I suggest you refer to the Dell Service Manual, which is available at this link.
Good luck with your repair!

I have the same situation. My computer has a
DVD-RW/CD-RW installed yet when it is empty, the computer simply recognizes it as a CD drive. However, it will automatically recognize any DVD I place in the drive. Even a blank DVD-R. So it's not really a problem for me.

Also, if you type in DEVICE MANAGER in your windows search area, it will show you all your computer's hardware and peripherals. I have Windows Vista 64 bit and in device manager it does recognize it as an ATAPI DVD under "DVD/CD-ROM DRIVES".

I haven't seen a DVD burner yet that won't play or write cd's; maybe this is standard.

I wouldn't worry about it as long as it performs the functions (play/burn DVD's?)

Hope this helps.

Probably your system has been corrupted, or you have installed a software that caused your system not to function due to conflicts.

The solution that i find to solve your problem is to perform windows xp repair install, which will replace corrupted files on your system in order for you system to run properly.

Follow these step by step solution on how to perform the Windows XP Repair Install.

You should first check if you have these on your system.
1. A CD/DVD Drive.
2. A bootable Windows XP Install disk, depends on the version of your Windows XP , whether it be SP3 or SP2.
3.Idea on how to boot to your BIOS settings, you can check it using your systems manual or you should see a press button (e.g "Press F2 to SETUP").


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Step by step solution on performing Windows XP Repair Install.
1. Insert the Windows XP installer on your CD/DVD Drive.
2. Restart your system.
3. Go to your BIOS Settings and set your CD/DVD drive boot priority. We will be booting to your Windows XP Install disk to perform reinstall on your system.

* Reinstalling doesnt affect your programs, but will just delete the previous windows xp system files and replace it with a new one.

4. When you are now in the Windows XP Install screen where you can select if you want to install windows xp, go to windows repair console or exit the installation. You should select "to Setup windows XP now press Enter".

Heres the screenshot as a guide.



Press Enter, then when you see Searching for previous windows installation, you should select "R" to repair your installation, if you dont see any "searching for previous windows installation message" then you should check your bios settings.

After the reboot, you should set back again your BIOS to boot from your hard drive. restart your system, also you should prepare a valid windows xp cd key for that because you will be needing it confirm the setup process of your system.

After the reinstallation process, you can now boot your windows xp system nice and clean. :)

Yes you can, I am proud to own one i've had it for a yr and a half and it is better than the most of the top name external drives, i use to to copy to and from my pc..

You can go to control panel, then performance & maintenance, then device manager, then try updating the drivers from here or from microsoft's website, or others. Do make sure that product is enabled and working properly in device manager. If need, reiinstall dvd rom software

Hello,

Make sure the BIOS is 'seeing' the drive. Reboot your pc, press F2 as soon as it starts to boot (Or watch your screen and the POST will display which function key to press to enter setup.) If the BIOS is NOT seeing the drive, you may need to a) replace the drivers for the dvd or b) replace the dvd rom itself. (I recommend the drivers first.) Please repost your results and we will continue to monitor your progress.

Good Luck
C2Solutions

CD Recording software that comes with HP and Compaq computers is made to recognize only the original CD and DVD drives. If a new CD or DVD writable drive was added, use the software that came with the drive or purchase and use new CD writing software. If you are using Windows XP, you can use Windows XP itself to create CDs (not DVDs). CD or DVD drive is not recognized by Windows If the drive is missing in Windows, remove all connected USB, firewire, and parallel devices and perform the following steps to enable the drive in Windows: Step 1: Checking for CD/DVD drive in BIOS Make sure the drive appears in Setup. The drive has to be detected in the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) before Windows can see the drive. Check for detection as follows:

1. Turn on the PC. When the first logo screen appears, press the F1 key repeatedly until the BIOS Setup screen appears (on some models this key press may be different, F2 or Del )
2. Press the F5 key, and then press the Enter key to reset the BIOS to the defaults.
3. Use the Left and Right Arrow keys to select Main .
4. The hardware-identifying name should appear next to Secondary Master, Secondary Slave, or Primary Slave.

see it is problem with your dvd drive try with dvd lens cleaner if still it is not working then show it to service personnel. bye