On Wed, Mar 05, 2008 at 05:48:05PM -0500, H.S. wrote: > In a Dell laptop, Inspiron 5160, the optical drive appeared to have died > a few days ago. The disk stopped spinning, Fn+Eject stopped working and > the button on the drive also stopped working. Attempting to eject lights > the LED on the drive, but the tray is never ejected. I had thought the > drive was dead (maybe the motor had died). > > However, it started to work a few days ago out of the blue! Today > though, it has again stopped working. > > I wonder what is going. It is dual boot laptop. It started to work when > the user was fiddling with Nero in Windows (it had stopped working after > the user first started using Nero). > > Are there any tools in Linux which I can use to see what is going on? > The laptop is long out of warranty so calling Dell is not an option.
To eliminate a software problem with the drive, the eject button should work during POST and during BIOS screens. To eliminate a mechanical problem, with the power off, does the emergency eject hole (activated with a paper-clip) unlatch the drive so you can slide it open manually? It should close on power-on. With it open, check for foreign material. An intermittant problem can often be an electrical connector. I've never even seen a Dell laptop so I don't know how to get at the connections. I don't suppose the whole drive is ejectable (like on my old ThinkPad)? Doug. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
