Dell Inspiron 8000 Manual page 46

If you cannot play a music CD or install a program from a CD
HINT: High-speed CD drive vibration is normal and may cause noise. This noise does not indicate a defect in the drive or the CD.
Ensure that Windows recognizes the drive—
perform a full scan with your antivirus software to check for and remove viruses. Viruses can sometimes prevent
Windows from recognizing the drive.
Test the drive with another CD—
Clean the disc— See the Tell Me How
Adjust the Windows volume control—
Be sure that the volume is turned up and that the sound is not muted.
If you have one CD in the fixed optical drive and one CD in the media bay drive—
1. Double-click the My Computer icon on your desktop.
2. Double-click the drive letter of the device the you are verifying.
If you cannot play a DVD movie
HINT: Because of different worldwide file types, not all DVD titles work in all DVD drives.
Ensure that Windows recognizes the drive—
perform a full scan with your antivirus software to check for and remove viruses. Viruses can sometimes prevent
Windows from recognizing the drive.
Test the drive with another DVD—
Clean the disc— See the Tell Me How
If the CD-RW drive stops writing
HINT: If you must disable standby mode to write to a CD-RW drive, remember to enable standby mode again when you finish writing the CD.
Disable standby mode in Windows before writing to a
CD-RW disk— Search for the keyword standby in
Change the write speed to a slower rate—
the stream is interrupted, an error occurs. Closing all programs before writing to the CD-RW may also alleviate the
problem.
If you have a hard drive problem
Check the hard drive for errors—
Windows Me:
Click the Start button, point to Programs—> Accessories—> System Tools, and then click ScanDisk.
Windows 2000:
1. Double-click the My Computer icon.
2. Right-click the Local Disk icon and then click Properties.
3. Click the Tools tab.
4. Click Check Now.
Double-click the My Computer icon. If the CD drive is not listed,
Insert another CD to eliminate the possibility that the original CD is defective.
help file for instructions.
Double-click the yellow speaker icon in the lower-right corner of your screen.
Double-click the My Computer icon. If the DVD drive is not listed,
Insert another DVD to eliminate the possibility that the original DVD is defective.
help file for instructions.
Windows Help.
The CD-RW drive must receive a steady stream of data when writing. If
Identify which CD is not playing: