Drive not accessible?!?!

I have quite a weird problem on my Dell Laptop and not being too good on computers I'm at a loss as to what to do. Here's my problem:



When I go into My Computer, my CD Drive is listed, and also shows that it has a CD in it. I can open and eject my CD without a problem. However, it does not tell me any information about my CD. If I try to click on my CD drive or use a programme that requires my CD drive I get the following error message:



D:/is not accessible

The device is not ready

retry/cancel.



I click retry and I just end up going round in circles. It seems the computer still knows that it is there, but has some trouble reeding the CD perhaps? I have tried cleaning the lens and also I know the CD to be good, not a burnt or damaged CD.



If anyone has any ideas it would be greatly appreciated.

have you tried it with a different cd,i know oyu said that the cd is fine, but it may of just stopped reading that particualr cd

I've tried that, sorry for not mentioning it earlier, but there was no joy then either.

Is it a removable drive? If so try taking it out and putting it back in, could be something with the connection. Also, try to see if the BIOS recognizes it.

It's not removable and sorry to sound a computer illiterate, but what exactly is BIOS and how do I get to see if it recognises my CD ROM drive?

Basic Input and Output System, some thing in the startup, I really can't explain it. Bit you shouldn't need to go there, go to the device manager
Start-->settings-->control panel-->system-->hardware tab-->device manager
If it is in there with no problems, reinstall it. If it has problems, see if you can fix them, then reinstall it. If it is not in there, reinstall it

Hey Bobo, thanks a lot for your post, I hope you check back cos I would like to know what you'd think of this:



CD ROM was listed in device manager so I clicked it and it listed: LG DVD-ROM DRN8080B

I clicked it again and under the general tab it says the device is working properly (but next to hardware version it says not available, as embarrassing as it sounds I have no idea if this correct.

Under settings tab, in the options box, only DMA is checked/ticked (whatever that means).

The current drive letter assignment is D (would it help if I changed this?) and under Reserved Drive letters, the Start Drive Letter and End Drive Letter are both blank. Does this all sound correct so far?!



Under driver it says no driver files are required or have been updated for this device, with the option to update.



Does this all sound correct?



Many thanks for your help and patience

If you've got driveproblems, what you might need to do is to uninstall the drive from Windows, reboot and let Windows automatically reinstall the device for you. To do so, (1) Control Panel, (2) System, (3) Hardware, (4) Device Manager, (5) Expand the DVD/CD-ROM Drives entry, right click on thr troublesome drive and uninstall it. Now simply reboot and let Windows try and repair itself.

Thanks very much for your help, I'll give it a go, just one question - what problems will it create if it can't re-find it again upon booting up? Or is that not something that can happen? Many thanks

Prolly not too many It shouldn't happen.