I own a dell inspiron 8600, and suddenly the cd/dvd drive (philips cdrw/dvd cdd5263) has stopped working. when i put a dvd or cd i have the usual whiring sound, but the computer does not recognise the drive is there. When i go onto the safely remove hardware button, it cones up with a the drives name and a yellow warning triangle next to it. i click on that and it comes up with a page saying:

Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Code 39)

Click Troubleshoot to start the troubleshooter for this device.

I click on the troubleshooter button and it takes me to a microsoft help page saying i should unistall it using the device manager, i do this, then it says i should reboot th pc, i do, nothing changes. i says i should then run the add hardware wizerd, i do, i follow the instructions...... nothing! please help!

Welcome to TechSpot!

Reboot the PC and press F2 to go into setup and check to see it the system sees the philips optical drives. .. Now remember these drives do go bad. All you can do is replace it. Another thing you can do is try clearing the unit with DVD clean disc or Open the case and see if the power is connected and the ribbon is connected both on the mobo and to the philips tightly.

harry7567, check out the hidden devices in device manager window. to do it: look for "show hidden devices" tab in menus. if you will see some devices with exclamation mark after doing this, just uninstall these devices. then reboot. after rebooting check if the problem persists. if so,i think, that you should replace your dvd drive.

Thank you both of you. I have followed your advice, and did not work. Instead of buying i new dvd drive, because the laptop is awful, and slow, and totaly pathetic, i am going to buy a new laptop, could you recomend any? my buget is between £400 and £600, and i need it to be fast, good on the internet, good for simple office programs (for secondary school homework) and, ok at running games. thank you
harry7567

Classic spyware symptom!! You CD/DVD drive stops working.

Run the following 3 anti-spyware utilities:

• Ad-Aware 2007
• Spybot Search & Destroy
• AVG Anti-spyware

All are free.

I just re-read your last post and you don't need to buy a new laptop. You need to cleanup your current laptop because it's full of spyware!! Repost after you've run all the utilities as you might need to run an XP repair installation.

Thanks for the advice, but i run those 3 on a regular basis, and i have run them again and it has turned up nothing. thanks.
by the way, i realy want 2 buy a new lappie, and this sort of gives me and excuse. the lappie i have got is sooo slow and awful i reay want a new one!!!!!
thanks
harry7567

i am going 2 run all 3 again...

Slow running and CD/DVD drive not working are both classic spyware symptoms. I'd be surprised if this was NOT spyware!

Make sure you run all 3 in Normal and Safe Modes. Also, make sure you have the latest updates for each util.

How old is your laptop?

the laptop was bought in xmas 03, i am just scanning in safe mode.....

If you're using it for work, then yes, time to buy a new one. If it's for personal use, you can still get some more mileage out it.

i am going to buy a new laptop, could you recomend any? my buget is between £400 and £600, and i need it to be fast, good on the internet, good for simple office programs (for secondary school homework) and, ok at running games. thank you
harry7567