Cd drive doesn't open - Vostro 1500

My Cd drive decided not to open a few days ago .... I also tried opening through itunes (that icon "open cd drive") and nothing... My lappie is just 2 months old ... I want to try to fix this before calling Dell and they just tell me "send it in" ....

Any ideas? I don't even know where to start, I am not techie enought

tks

 

Get a paper clip, unwind it and find the little emergency open hole on your drive, usually at the side or the bottom. Looks like one of those small "reset" holes on small electronics.

 

Thanks for the quick response. That worked, I was able to open the drive with a paper clip in that little hole... It seems like it's dead though... well let me rephrase, It's dead ... I put a cd in and it's not reading it, you hear nothing like the cd spinning.

Also, the drive didn't seem nor does it seem now that its completely close... sticks out a notch...

Next ? please....

tks

 

Send it off to service. Nothing you can do about it unless you want to buy a new one and replace it yourself.

 

Tks, Luckily I got an external hd I can back my files to...

I''l give them a call on Monday

 

Just wondering. Can you send JUST the drive to Dell? Or do you have to send the entire laptop for this problem?

 

You dont need to send you laptop in for service. The cd drive is a user replaceable part. They will send you a new drive and a shipping label to send the broken one back with. Mine died also about two months after i had it also. They sent me a new drive the next day.

To confirm it is dead (dell will make you do this over the phone), go into the bios and see if your drive is listed there. If it is not, on the bottom of the laptop below the cd drive there is a white marking with a pad lock on it. Turn off your computer. Then unscrew this screw, and pull out the drive from the laptop. If need be, use a paper clip to open the tray so you have something to pull it out with. Then go and put it back in the computer. If it still is not recognized then the drive is dead and you do need a new one. The same process to applies to install a new one.

If they say you need to send it into service, say you can do it yourself. (unless you don't feel comfortable unscrewing one screw).

Hope this helped.

 

Same thing happened to me a couple of days ago... just make sure you didn't disabled by mistake the module bay in your bios... there's a specific page for that in my system (vostro 1400).
Hope this helps!

 

Tks guys, I am going to look further into this later and see if I disabled by accident. Yeah, I think I can remove the drive and replace... LOL .... much more comfortable than having to send it in...

I hope it's that I disabled it, b/c compared to my prior Toshiba I would be disappointed ....Other than this , I LOVE this laptop since day one

 

How do I go into Bios?

 

Press F2 right after power on/restart.