dell labtop wont read burnt disks (inspirion 1100)

A

AustinHurst

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 26, 2003
Messages
364
I guess dell protected it or something cause i can read regular cds and software thats paid for..but all my burnt cds dont work. Like music cds and cds i have videos on and stuff.

Well i have to transfer everything off the cds to another pc and transfer the stuff over the network and its a pain.

Does anyone else experience this w/ a dell labtop or know how to disable it?

If not, could it possibly be the hardware..like a cd drive issue?
 
what drive you got? (i'm guessing the regular cd drive) i think its the drive, cauz I have the DVD/CDR and I can read CDR (duh, lol) and also DVDR
 
its just a dvd drive, but i can read regular store bought cds. Maybe its got something against cdrs.

This is only a few month old laptop though.
 
my 8200 was kinda the same way, i have the dvd drive, and it refused to read hardly any of my cd's that i burned... after a while i did some reading, and read to take out the drive and put it in again (to maybe get a better connection), that helped a little bit, but then i flashed it with some newer firmware, and that helped a lot... it is still semi picky if i use cheap cd's but for the most part it reads everything i burn now.
 
What media are you using and what speed have you burnt at? The laptop CD-ROM drive may be picky with certain brands of media.
 
k-hypermedia and tdk disks for the most part. I usually burn under 40X. between 32x and 40x.

Im not too smart when it comes to firmware..is that like drivers? Can I just download it and install it or do i have to do stuff in the bios?
 
Hey Austin !

I am about to get one of these laptops. Mine will be a 2.4gHz Celly with 512 meg of ram. Have you done any gaming with it ? I realize this is far from the ideal setup for gaming..but I am getting this from work so I will take what I can get. Any input on the laptop ?

Tony
 
The laptop is surprisingly slow. I know laptop processors aren't supposed to really clock as fast as desktops..but this is just outrageous. It runs like an 800mhz machine with 128mbs of low grade ram when i fill the small hd (20gigs) with more then 10gigs. (its a 2.2ghz with 256mbs of ram. This is suspected b/c im using half the hd space, but it still should be running faster.

I believe part of the problem is Dell overloaded it w/ software and junk that's not needed. I rarely use the laptop unless im taking it to hotel rooms to watch movies etc..but i assume it would not run games smoothly.

I got it for 600 or so bucks off their webby when i saw a few coupon codes on slickdeals and it is a nice laptop. Its got onboard lan and video out..but I suggest getting a diff brand for gaming.

PS- another option is to get that laptop and reformat it. Im sure that prolly would speed it up quite a bit assuming Dell overloaded it.
 
Mine's Celeron 2.3 with 512 MB and 30 GB (with 7 GB Free) and it's fast. Almost as fast as my P4 Desktop at the same speed with regular apps.

If you find it slow, its cauz you need more memory.
 
Originally posted by AustinHurst
k-hypermedia and tdk disks for the most part. I usually burn under 40X. between 32x and 40x.

Im not too smart when it comes to firmware..is that like drivers? Can I just download it and install it or do i have to do stuff in the bios?
Click to expand...

I recommend you use a better brand of CD-R and you enable Smart-Burn (or similar) if your writer supports it. I used a few k-hypermedia discs when I went to the USA and when I ran Nero CDSpeed at home there were thousands of errors. Firmware is sort of like a driver but if it goes wrong it can leave your device unusable ever. Most people udpate firmwares in DOS (because it's sometimes required) or in Safe Mode. Updating the Firmware of both drives may help. It may help your CD-Writer because it will recognize more types of disk and to use better write strategys etc. Also it may help your notebook CD-ROM because it may read discs better etc. Good luck!

Also I don't know where people from the USA buy their CDs but if you check out www.121cdr.co.uk you can see some good types of media.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top