restored laptop to original configuration..problems.. - Page 2

bigchillcar · bigchillcar's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by slodave

Here's a screen shot:

If the upperfilters line does not exist, don't delete it

Delete the lowerfilters, close regedit, reboot and see what happens.

wilco. i can't recall how i used to take screen shots, but may not be able to now since i lost all the programs i'd downloaded over the past two years since i did the reset to original factory delivery..

slodave · slodave's Garage

To take a screen image of just the window you want - regedit, hold down the alt key and press "print scrn" (to the right of F12). Windows has a built in image editor, Goto Start->Run and type in mspaint.

bigchillcar · bigchillcar's Garage

hi dave,
still not seeing the cd after deleting low filters entry, exiting and re-booting. i did the alt/print screen, but nothing happened..or it took a pic and i don't know the file path it saved it under?

slodave · slodave's Garage

You have to paste the screen shot into mspaint or other application (i.e. Photoshop). Optical drive may be bad. Do you have another that you can test with?

bigchillcar · bigchillcar's Garage

no, it's the only drive that i have.

slodave · slodave's Garage

Optical drives are around $60.00. Ya may bite the bullet and pick a new one up. The registry trick only works if the drive is good, but a driver may have become corrupt. It was worth a try.

bigchillcar · bigchillcar's Garage

dave, no chance it could be a driver issue? although it shows to be working properly in device manager. did you decide it my model's a dual or single laser?

$60 for a replacement drive. okay..how much would best buy's geek squad probably charge to install? i've played inside plenty of desktops, but it's been a while and i've never opened up a laptop..

thanks so much for your help, dave.

slodave · slodave's Garage

Whoops, I missed that it was for a laptop. Those drive are more expensive. There aren't really any drivers for an optical drive outside of the native windows drivers. There is a firmware upgrade for the drive, but it may not fix the problem. Laptop optical drives are usually easy to replace. Most of the time, there is a screw on the bottom of the laptop that secures it. Your drive is about $100.00. Google sony dvd+rw DW-Q58A. Lots of people having problems.

bigchillcar · bigchillcar's Garage

ahhh....i will google it. think i should replace with another brand/model? i think i see the screw. if that's all that holds it..great. i guess you could then pull out the entire drive unit and the cabling would come out, too, so you can detach and replace without opening more of the computer?

SLO-BOB · 02-21-2008, 04:26 PM

Could you just reformat and hope for the best? I've had things not "'take" the first time around. Another option is get a usb external drive. I have a Plextor that works nicely. Yeah - it's a pain to haul around an external drive, but not too bad. Plus I can count on one hand how often I use my drive.

slodave · slodave's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigchillcar

ahhh....i will google it. think i should replace with another brand/model? i think i see the screw. if that's all that holds it..great. i guess you could then pull out the entire drive unit and the cabling would come out, too, so you can detach and replace without opening more of the computer?

No cable should come out. The drive usually "plugs" into the laptop. If anything, you would have to take a plate off of the bad optical drive and put it onto the new one. If you were to get the same drive, it would be obvious of what needs to be moved.

You can't really just go buy any brand optical drive for a laptop. You would have to figure out what optical drive models are compatible for your laptop and that is not easy for an end user to do.

Dave

slodave · slodave's Garage

Here's an example site that lists various drives for laptops...
http://www.bixnet.com/lapexcddriv.html

bigchillcar · bigchillcar's Garage

hey, bob..that's a reasonable idea..except i might use mine to watch movies while traveling.

thanks for the link dave...guess i'll get this taken care of tomorrow.

Vipergrün · 02-21-2008, 06:42 PM

Chill, have you visited the Dell website yet? You should be able to look up your exact model and get all of the appropriate drivers.

SLO-BOB · 02-22-2008, 05:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigchillcar

hey, bob..that's a reasonable idea..except i might use mine to watch movies while traveling.

thanks for the link dave...guess i'll get this taken care of tomorrow.

Load the movies onto your hardrive (from the external drive). I think you use less battery that way - could be wrong.