Pc wont reccoginze cd rw device and i cant burn, dell says need to be configured again, forver since i replaced a bad hard drive in this pc, it has started to do this

First - re-seat the harddisk and reboot the computer. If the computer does not boot up then reboot andgo into the BIOS configuration to see if the BIOS detects the hard drive. If itdoesn't detect the hard drive then it could be faulty.Then the hard drive needsto be replaced in the computer/laptop, Windows installed and the computer orlaptop's device drivers plus your programs etc. to get a functioningcomputer/laptop again.

Not all Inspirons have CD burners (the 4 factory options were CD-ROM, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, and DVD/CD-RW. You can confirm that via Windows Start > Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager and double click on DVD/CD-ROM drives to see what model drive you have, then just Google it to see what it's capable of.

In case you have either a CD-RW type drive or a DVD/ CD-RW drive and it doesn't want to burn CD's , then it's a bad drive.

i would recommend uninstalling the drivers completely and reinstalling them, however most drivers for cd roms cd/rw are preinstalled, and the only thing you can update is the firmware for the device itself. you may want to try unhooking the drive and rebooting the computer, then turning off the machine again, and reattach the drive, and restart. that might force it to re-configure and re-load the drivers

If you need further help, reach me via phone at https://www.6ya.com/expert/joel_63c670a84e9f6a97

read failure of the CD\DVD drive. If you were running diagnostics and have no readable media in the drive, that is a NORMAL result.
If you have readable media in the drive, try reseating the drive and try to read again. If the media is not a factory burned CD, try a factory burned one.
See if you can boot to an Windows CD.
If all the above fail, then likely a drive failure, replace the drive
http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-Inspiron-E1505-6400-6000-E1705-DVD-RW-DVDRW-Drive-/170505381668?pt=PCC_Drives_Storage_Internal&hash=item27b2e9a724#ht_3121wt_1137

if the cd has been written to already, you cannot write on it again. If the cd says CD +/- R, then it is not rewritable, look for a CD that says +/- RW. If it doesn't say either of those, a regular cd looks light grey, while a rewritable is usually a lot darker.

try and roll back the drivers...also another way is to try and boot your machine off the cd drive..if it boots of the drive then you knoie that the drive is working and it is a driver error..if it wont boot off the drive the drive is probablly bad..make shure when trying to boot off the drive that you change your settings in your bios to for to boot from cd..

You can burn any type of file on a dvd-rw disc. However your cd burner must be dvd-rw not cd-rw. To verify your device open my computer (on most pc's) you will see drive c (your hard drive) and drive d which is your cd rom it should say dvd-rw.
You may also need dvd burning software for more information about this click here http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/expert/jones_02november25.mspx

Hi budliteman36
Dell Dimension 2400 series will not bur DVD, see the link blow for specifications.
http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/dell-dimension-2400-pentium/4507-3118_7-30824846.html?tag=mncol;rnav

You can replace the CD-RW drive with a DVD writer. Here is a list od DVD-R-RW writers.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=89&name=DVD-Burners&

Cheers!
Mike

GO TO THE
system icon in the control panel
hardware configuration?
make sure that the cd drive has the proper "region"
install selected
or could simply be a dirty laser
clean with alcohol and a qtip swab then try?

Drive is more than likely fried. It's not uncommon to have DVD/CDRW drives or any burning drive go bad especially if you use it frequently. Check www.newegg.com for a replacement they shouldn't be more than 30 dollars for a decent model now.