Dell Dimension 5100C

[bil_drk]

first os was Win XP Home. then upgraded to pro. then to win 7 ultimate. the toshiba (the drive that came w/the system) was a DVD-Rom drive. the Dell is a CD-Rom drive.

[jason2074]

Was there any other issue and issues concerning optical drives to all previous installed OS aside from current OS? You have change or upgraded different
OS which may or may not be an issue. And have gone from DVD-ROM to CD-ROM which is also another may/may not issue. Have you check your connector for optical drive if its still good? 

[bil_drk]

thats what i'm trying to diagnose...if the connector on the end of the cable is bad, then thats a $20 fix.....if it's something else, then i may not be able to fix it for a while.... no, when i had XP, it worked fine. i'm thinking that maybe a power surge or something hurt the system, and crashed the drive, cable, or whatever's wrong.

[jason2074]

Yes sometimes at the end of the day, you will end up spending hopefully a little after much speculations coz without the sources(other similar computer) of testing your new optical drives with a custom made cable connector (good?/bad?) for your slim type dell computer. IF only your old DVD-ROM was working. You could run a test for the cable if it is really working or not.

[bil_drk]

true....but when all is said and done, i think a cable will fix it. thanks a lot to all who helped