Very picky CD drive.

[CBMatt]

I recently reformatted a Dell Dimension 2400 with Windows XP Home SP1a (see here).  After doing so, I used the Resource CD's to manually install all of the drivers.  For the most part, everything's been going smoothly.  But I'm still having problems with the CD drive.  It seems to only want to read the CD's that came with the machine.  It fails to recognize any others (with the exception of an old Microsoft Works 2004 CD that came with my old eMachines W2247).  If I put in any other, the arrow will change (it will become the arrow with a CD) for a few seconds and then that's it.  It doesn't even spin the disk or anything.

The whole thing is really odd.  I've never heard of a drive only reading specific disks.  Figuring I needed new drivers or something of the sort, I went to Dell to download the newest drivers, but none were available for this particular drive (HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE-8483B), so I tried setting up an external drive (MicroSystems Backpack CodeWriter; LG CD-RW CED-8083B USB Device), but it does the exact same thing.  I checked the BIOS, but didn't find anything unusual.  Of course, I also might not know what to look for.  According to Device Manager, the drive is working properly, but this definitely isn't the case.

I tried running IDE Drive Diagnostics, but when it scanned the drive, it said "Diagnostics not supported."  I've pretty much run out of ideas.  I would really love to hear any suggestions you guys might have.  If it's of any relevance, the computer has 256 MB and 2.4 GHz.  Because it's not my computer, I don't know for sure that the drive worked before the reformat, but I assume it does, because my sister (the owner) never told me about having problems with it.

[TRUSS.ENG]

Try opendrivers.com and reinstall the drivers - Or just type in your web browser the identification numbers and you will see options for possibly troubleshooting or other areas for possible driver downloads - Even try Microsoft.com.

[soybean]

Since it's a Dell, you might try this forum also: http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board?board.id=dim_cdrom

[TRUSS.ENG]

Try opendrivers.com and reinstall the drivers - Or just type in your web browser the identification numbers and you will see options for possibly troubleshooting or other areas for possible driver downloads - Even try Microsoft.com.

[TRUSS.ENG]

The Dell Community Forum that soybean above mentioned is an excellent idea - I have been there as well and there is a contact called "Dev Mgr" that is very helpful in assisting with hardware questions.

[CBMatt]

Thank you for the resources.  I'll look into both of them right now.

[TRUSS.ENG]

How did your research go?

[CBMatt]

Not too well so far.  I found the appropriate driver needed, but it didn't change anything.  Then someone on the Dell forum started helping me out.  He had me make sure that the drive is running in DMA mode, which it is.  He then suggested reloading the IDE controller, so I did that, but it didn't make any difference.  And I haven't heard anything from him since.  I looked around on Google for a bit and took a small break and now I'm back and I'm still not coming up with anything.  I just don't get it...  As far as I can tell, everything is set up properly in the BIOS, the drivers are installed, it's running in the proper mode, and the computer has no problem recognizing the drive.  But it just doesn't work.  And it can't be a hardware issue because the same thing happens with the external drive (it works fine on other computers).  I'm half-tempted to look for some hacked firmware, but I don't think it would really even help me all that much.