📎 AI Summary:
The thread discusses a recurring issue where users' DVD drives disappear from their systems after upgrading or resetting to Windows 10. Several troubleshooting methods are suggested, including checking hardware connections, updating BIOS, and applying registry edits to manually re-enable the drive. Despite some users reporting success with these fixes, others, like the original poster, find that these solutions do not resolve the problem, leading to the conclusion that the drive may be faulty and might need replacement or external solution.
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Tech Coyote

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Hello, my DVD drive is not showing up in computer, device manager, or even the BIOS. My current OS is Windows 10. I had to reset my PC due to the taskbar freezing up. The DVD drive was fine before the reset. But after I did the reset, my DVD drive went missing from everywhere. I can still press the button at the end of my computer to open the drive and there is lights and such. If someone can help me with this I would greatly appreciate it.
 

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BIGBEARJEDI
Ok, thanks for that info. Sounds like you'll have to purchase an External DVD writer as I mention to test out your laptop. If the external DVD works through USB as I suggest, then your internal DVD drive is most likely bad and must be replaced. This is about $30 if you do so yourself; about $100 or so at a repair shop.

The other way to test your existing internal DVD is to use factory Recovery media that came with your Dell laptop if you have it, and rollback your laptop to the version of Windows that came pre-loaded onto it--Win8.1 in your case. Of course, if your DVD isn't being recognized by the BIOS with factory Recovery Media and you cannot rollback since the DVD drive can't properly read the Recovery Discs, you can never get...
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Thread Author #21
BIGBEARJEDI said:
Sounds good. Looking forward to hearing your final solution.

Best,
<<<BBJ>>>
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Finished talking to Dell. They said that my warranty is expired so I would have to pay a charge to get my laptop repaired which is around $150 I think and that's just a waste. The guy did say I could try resetting the optical drive.. But I was confused by what he meant.
 

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BIGBEARJEDI

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#22
Nice work there. Pretty standard charge, in fact that's pretty competitive with Best Buy Geek Squad. I was expecting it to be more.

There are a few Optical Drives that have a reset button (like a router or cable modem) on the bottom or rear of the drive itself, but not many. He probably meant physically removing the DVD drive from the laptop drive bay (remember I said it's usually 1-2 screws?), and then re-inserting the DVD drive back into the drive bay. PRIOR TO DOING THIS HOWEVER, ENSURE THAT YOU REMOVE BOTH YOUR AC ADAPTER AND THE LAPTOP BATTERY FROM THE LAPTOP!!! THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!!!
It's probably worth a try.

Be warned that if your Dell is one of the new laptops that has the laptop battery buried inside the bottom case, you'll have to completely remove all those screws to get to the compartment inside the laptop where the battery lives. This could be anywhere from 10-16 screws that would need to be removed if you do it yourself. You will need a jeweler's screwdriver with a Philips-head to do so. If you don't have one of these, you can buy jeweler's screwdriver kits at Radio Shack or Home Depot for $10-$20 US. They are readily available. Opening up the laptop case violates your factory warranty from Dell, but, since you've already talked to Dell, and your laptop is out of warranty, that doesn't matter.

The process of doing this will send a power-reset signal from the Laptop Main CPU to the DVD drive. The laptop BIOS will see the DVD drive or not after this reset. If the BIOS still fails to see the DVD drive, as I said in my earlier posts, it's probably faulty. If the DVD drive fails to respond to the power reset signal coming from the BIOS, it probably will fail to be recognized by Windows and therefore any Windows diagnostics such as Device Manager in the Control Panel. If the DVD drive power reset works, and the BIOS recognizes the DVD drive, but Win10 still does not. The drive could still be faulty and must be replaced. The only way to know for sure is to replace the internal DVD drive with an exact replacement or buy the $20 external usb DVD writer I recommended earlier and test. Plugging in the external usb DVD drive is still the cheapest way to troubleshoot exactly where your problem lies.

Since Mike's Registry fix works on other people's DVD drive problems, it's very likely your DVD is faulty; either intermittently so, or it's completely bad.

Hope that helps!
<<<BBJ>>>
 
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Thread Author #23
BIGBEARJEDI said:
Nice work there. Pretty standard charge, in fact that's pretty competitive with Best Buy Geek Squad. I was expecting it to be more.

There are a few Optical Drives that have a reset button (like a router or cable modem) on the bottom or rear of the drive itself, but not many. He probably meant physically removing the DVD drive from the laptop drive bay (remember I said it's usually 1-2 screws?), and then re-inserting the DVD drive back into the drive bay. PRIOR TO DOING THIS HOWEVER, ENSURE THAT YOU REMOVE BOTH YOUR AC ADAPTER AND THE LAPTOP BATTERY FROM THE LAPTOP!!! THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!!!
It's probably worth a try.

Be warned that if your Dell is one of the new laptops that has the laptop battery buried inside the bottom case, you'll have to completely remove all those screws to get to the compartment inside the laptop where the battery lives. This could be anywhere from 10-16 screws that would need to be removed if you do it yourself. You will need a jeweler's screwdriver with a Philips-head to do so. If you don't have one of these, you can buy jeweler's screwdriver kits at Radio Shack or Home Depot for $10-$20 US. They are readily available. Opening up the laptop case violates your factory warranty from Dell, but, since you've already talked to Dell, and your laptop is out of warranty, that doesn't matter.

The process of doing this will send a power-reset signal from the Laptop Main CPU to the DVD drive. The laptop BIOS will see the DVD drive or not after this reset. If the BIOS still fails to see the DVD drive, as I said in my earlier posts, it's probably faulty. If the DVD drive fails to respond to the power reset signal coming from the BIOS, it probably will fail to be recognized by Windows and therefore any Windows diagnostics such as Device Manager in the Control Panel. If the DVD drive power reset works, and the BIOS recognizes the DVD drive, but Win10 still does not. The drive could still be faulty and must be replaced. The only way to know for sure is to replace the internal DVD drive with an exact replacement or buy the $20 external usb DVD writer I recommended earlier and test. Plugging in the external usb DVD drive is still the cheapest way to troubleshoot exactly where your problem lies.

Since Mike's Registry fix works on other people's DVD drive problems, it's very likely your DVD is faulty; either intermittently so, or it's completely bad.

Hope that helps!
<<<BBJ>>>
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I guess I should try that when I get the chance. My laptop battery is removable.
 
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Thread Author #25
Well, I just removed the drive, there was no sort of reset button. I didn't want to unscrew anything else on the drive. So, I put it back in the slot and turned on my laptop. Still nothing, which is a shame. Someone told me that there is a little company local where I am that does computer repairs. You pay $40 when you walk in, but if you decide to do the repair they use that $40 and use it towards the total of the repair. The repair price seems to be less than Dell's price. I called the guy and he said he would need to see my laptop. But it seems affordable since a lot of small businesses uses them.
 
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BIGBEARJEDI said:
It's worth a shot; and it's free!

<<<BBJ>>>
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Well, I just removed the drive, there was no sort of reset button. I didn't want to unscrew anything else on the drive. So, I put it back in the slot and turned on my laptop. Still nothing, which is a shame. Someone told me that there is a little company local where I am that does computer repairs. You pay $40 when you walk in, but if you decide to do the repair they use that $40 and use it towards the total of the repair. The repair price seems to be less than Dell's price. I called the guy and he said he would need to see my laptop. But it seems affordable since a lot of small businesses uses them.
 

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BIGBEARJEDI

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#27
That's too bad. Sounds like this guy can do the dvd drive replacement for you for around $80 or so--depending on what he charges you for the new drive. The whole repair if under $100 will still be much less than the $150 Dell charges. Also, it would cost you another $50 to ship the laptop to Dell [they ship it back free]. I just shipped one Fedex to a friend who lives 130 miles away. So anything under $100; would be cheaper than the $200 (plus shipping to Dell) it would cost you to go that way using your local guy. This is why so many people have me fix their laptops where I live--rural area--as the cost to get it repaired at an Authorized Service Center or the Laptop factory is usuall 2-3 times what I can do it for.
Good luck with your repair!

<<<BBJ>>>
 
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Thread Author #28
BIGBEARJEDI said:
That's too bad. Sounds like this guy can do the dvd drive replacement for you for around $80 or so--depending on what he charges you for the new drive. The whole repair if under $100 will still be much less than the $150 Dell charges. Also, it would cost you another $50 to ship the laptop to Dell [they ship it back free]. I just shipped one Fedex to a friend who lives 130 miles away. So anything under $100; would be cheaper than the $200 (plus shipping to Dell) it would cost you to go that way using your local guy. This is why so many people have me fix their laptops where I live--rural area--as the cost to get it repaired at an Authorized Service Center or the Laptop factory is usuall 2-3 times what I can do it for.
Good luck with your repair!

<<<BBJ>>>
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Thanks you! I will probably send it in sometime in October since I am busy with other things. 🙂
 
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MikeHawthorne

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#29
Hi

"Well, I just removed the drive, there was no sort of reset button. I didn't want to unscrew anything else on the drive. So, I put it back in the slot and turned on my laptop."

If you've gone that far, can't you just get a new drive and put it in yourself.

I've swapped out hard drives on a laptop but never a DVD drive so I don't know what's involved exactly, but you said you've had in and out.

Maybe Bear can elaborate on what's involved?

Some of the drives themselves only cost like $25 or so.

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MikeHawthorne said:
Hi

"Well, I just removed the drive, there was no sort of reset button. I didn't want to unscrew anything else on the drive. So, I put it back in the slot and turned on my laptop."

If you've gone that far, can't you just get a new drive and put it in yourself.

I've swapped out hard drives on a laptop but never a DVD drive so I don't know what's involved exactly, but you said you've had in and out.

Maybe Bear can elaborate on what's involved?

Some of the drives themselves only cost like $25 or so.

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I may do that
 
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Thread Author #31
BIGBEARJEDI said:
That's too bad. Sounds like this guy can do the dvd drive replacement for you for around $80 or so--depending on what he charges you for the new drive. The whole repair if under $100 will still be much less than the $150 Dell charges. Also, it would cost you another $50 to ship the laptop to Dell [they ship it back free]. I just shipped one Fedex to a friend who lives 130 miles away. So anything under $100; would be cheaper than the $200 (plus shipping to Dell) it would cost you to go that way using your local guy. This is why so many people have me fix their laptops where I live--rural area--as the cost to get it repaired at an Authorized Service Center or the Laptop factory is usuall 2-3 times what I can do it for.
Good luck with your repair!

<<<BBJ>>>
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Just find something Bizarre. I went on one of my family members laptop and she had the same problem as me, the DVD drive is gone! She has a dell laptop too. And the weird part is that she hasn't used the laptop for like a month now and she is on windows 8.1.
 

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