OK guys (& gals) I've got a bit of a problem. I recently reformated and everything was working fine for like a month. Yesterday, I tried to install MS Office onto my laptop & it wouldnt let me. The DVD I have it on was being picked up as a blank CD rather than a DVD with data on it. I tried using the CD version & it started up the install process OK (asking where I wanted to install, etc) but when it came time to actually start the install, the drive started clicking & it couldnt install (I got tired of listening to the clicks & terminated it cause it was just sitting there not doing anything).

I have had similar problems with trying to access data off of other CDs. Windows will detect the CD & the pop up comes up saying "There are verious kinds of data on this CD..." when I open it up in Explorer, it shows me what's on the CD fine, but when I try to copy off the CD, it starts to click again & wont copy (claiming it cant read from the source).

Both the Office CD & DVD should be good - I used them both on another PC a few days prior & they've been in their nice binder so they didnt get scratched or anything since.

The drive does, however work with DVD Shrink & DVD Decrypt. I've got a copy of Alien3 playing in my stand alone that I ripped and burnt after the whole issue started & it seems to be doing well.

Any suggestions on how to fix it? Or is the drive fracked & will need replacing?

Device manager is picking it up alright (_NEC DVD+-RW ND-6650A) and to the best of my knowledge there have been no changes to the system since.

Drive or media could require cleaning or in the worst case, the media will give you CRC errors.

Then try with another drive, if possible.

The media is good - I'm using one of the DVDs in another computer right now (transfering the data to my USB key drive so I can at least install Office). And I've tried numerous CDs - none of them will work - they all just click. So I'm assuming its the drive. I will see about getting a cleaner for it this weekend, but I doubt that'll help. Think I might just have to call up Dell & have them send me a replacement. Hopefully they'll just send me the drive rather than requiring me to send my laptop to them as I dont think I could live for 2+ weeks while they fix it....

thanks for your help chef! I got a dvd cleaner & ran it... everything is A-OK now! And a $10 dollar cleaner is a lot better than a $100 new drive