Problems with your Dell DVD Drive?
July 20, 2008 – 11:07 pmI have a Dell Inspiron E1505 laptop with Windows Vista. From day one I’ve had problems using Windows Explorer to navigate the contents. Anytime I double-click on the drive it tells me to format the disc and asks for the disc label even if there is content on the disc. For awhile I dealt with this problem and used the command line to copy files off of DVDs and CDs. Ugh. Finally I got fed up.
The drive shows up as “TSSTcorp DVD+-RW TS-L632D ATA Device” in device manager. Microsoft published an article that explains how to fix the problem. The short of it: delete the upper and lower filters stored in the registry
Delete Key 1: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\UpperFilters
Delete Key 2: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\LowerFilters
Worked like a champ.
Dell, you need to post this on your website and educate your customer service. They’re absolutely worthless.
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3 Responses to “Problems with your Dell DVD Drive?”
Great find!
By Jack
on Jul 21, 2008
Would Apple ever publish a fix like this? Edit the registry?
Sounds like Dell isn’t the villain here..
By evan
on Aug 2, 2008
This is a documented problem with the drives Dell uses yet Dell refuses to put out an updater to fix the issue. While Dell doesn’t manufacture these drives, they do use them in their products and are therefore responsible for making sure they work correctly.
One of the main reasons to buy a Dell is that they provide support for the entire machine, whereas if you built one yourself you would be responsible for contacting each individual manufacturer when that particular piece failed.
The DVD drive issue isn’t Dell’s fault but they do need to fix it, either by using better drives, providing a firmware update, or updated drivers.
By Jeremy
on Aug 3, 2008