Mostly DVD Issues
6-3-1: How to capture DVD screen?(*credit: Jim Hardin*)
Capturing a still from DVD.
First thing you will find is that the normal Windows capturing methods WILL NOT WORK. The normal Print Screen and then Paste does not work when using DVD. Likewise the DVD player that shipped with some Dells by Quadrant International, offers no capture ability.
The reason DVD won’t capture has to do with interlacing. I read an explanation of this once, but frankly I did not really understand it.
Solution: You will have to go with another software decoder such as WinDVD (http://www.intervideoinc.com/jsp/Home.jsp )or PowerDVD (http://www.cyberlink.com ). These are just two and there are more out there. I choose PowerDVD so I will talk about that one.
It is important to setup the capture parameters before starting. Capture options include: to Clipboard, to Wallpaper (Center or Tile) , and to File. File is my preference and you can designate where it will go. It will automatically number each capture so you do not have to worry about overwriting a file. BMP is the only format.
As long as Hardware decoding is operating, the option of setting the brightness is not available. The capture will come out darker than what you see on screen. You will have to disable hardware decoding or play with the captures in a graphics program when finished. Captures will be720 X 540 @ 96 dpi, so do not expect too much quality… PAL would be slightly more, but still far short of the 300 dpi found in a still digital camera.
Here are two I took from Six Days and Seven Nights, both tender moments between Harrison Ford and Anne Heche.
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These are ‘bright’ scenes and I would probably increase brightness by 5% or so to make them come out better. This DVD is also in wide screen so cropping the image to remove the black bars would be a good idea.
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6-3-2: DVD Support in Windows 98
The information in this article applies to:
SUMMARY
This article lists DVD decoder adapters that are supported in Windows 98.
MORE INFORMATION
Microsoft supports the reading of DVD discs within Windows 98 using SCSI and
ATAPI-compliant DVD-ROM drives. Playing movies is supported only with the following
decoder adapters:
Because Windows 98 DVD Player is designed to work with the Windows 98 decoder drivers,
the option to add or remove DVD Player is not available until a supported DVD decoder
adapter is installed and detected.
Once a supported DVD decoder adapter is detected and the Windows 98 drivers are installed,
a shortcut for DVD Player is added to the Entertainment menu and the option to add or
remove DVD Player becomes available under Multimedia on the Windows Setup tab in the
Add/Remove Programs tool. After it is installed, the DVD Player software can be removed
and reinstalled without having to reinstall the decoder drivers.
NOTE: If a supported DVD decoder adapter is being used, but has third- party drivers
installed, Windows 98 does not install the Windows 98 drivers or DVD Player until the
third-party drivers are removed using Device Manager.
Other DVD playback software and decoder adapters, including other Cinemaster DVD decoder
adapters such as the Cinemaster S, are not supported and require the drivers and software
provided by the manufacturer to function properly.
Additional query words: mpeg udf cards
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6-3-3: No Audio from DVD (Author: Egbert Hidding )
If you have HW-decoder:
Audio comes through the cable from Cinemaster Card to your Audio Card.
If you have Soft-decoding:
You should hear sound just like you hear it with games and audio play.
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The "hiccups" you refer to relate to the fact that both your DVD and CD-RW are actually connected to the same IDE controller. The "skips" are caused by a pause in the data stream to the CD-RW during the recording process. The pause is due to the need to read more data from the DVD drive so that it can be passed to the CD-RW drive. In short: because both of these devices are on the same IDE channel, the system must interrupt the data stream to the CD-RW when reading from the DVD. This is not really a cause for alarm nor is this a problem with your computer. This is a limitation of the data transfer rates of these devices and the amount of data that the CD-RW can actually buffer while waiting for more data to be read from the DVD. If you are recording at speeds of 4x or higher, try slowing the record speed so that the CD-RW will not empty it's data buffer so quickly.
Big Brother
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6-3-5: Error Message Inserting DVD Movie in Cinemaster C WDM DVD Drive ( Article Q232807 )
The information in this article applies to:
SYMPTOMS
When you insert a DVD movie disc, you may receive the following error message:
The software DVD isn't supported, you need to install the proper decoder.
If you look in Device Manager, you may notice a exclamation point (!) next to the Cinemaster C WDM DVD drive. If you check the properties of the drive, it may display a status of Code 28.
CAUSE
This issue can occur if the Plug and Play operating system setting in the computer's CMOS settings is set to Yes.
RESOLUTION
To resolve this issue, change the Plug and Play operating system setting in the
computer's CMOS settings to No. Please contact the computer's manufacturer for assistance
with using the computer's CMOS configuration program.
To work around this issue, reinstall the DVD drivers:
MORE INFORMATION
Microsoft recommends that you change the CMOS setting. Reinstalling the driver should correct the issue, but it may reoccur at a later date with other DVD discs.
Additional query words: bios
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6-3-6: How DVD Regions are Selected for Use by Windows 98 / Me DVD Player. ( Article Q192103 )
The information in this article applies to:
SUMMARY
This article describes how the DVD Player tool in Windows 98 and Windows Me handles DVD region selection.
MORE INFORMATION
The initial default DVD region is chosen during Windows 98/Me Setup when you
select a country in the Establishing Your Location dialog box. If you choose None for a
country location, the default region selection is based on the country code and time zone.
The first time a DVD movie is inserted in the drive, Windows 98/Me compares the region on
the movie disc with the region selected during Setup. If the DVD movie has a different
region than the region selected during Setup, the default is changed to match the DVD
movie. If the first DVD movie inserted in the drive has only one region on the disc,
Windows 98/Me uses that region as the default, regardless of everything else.
Once the selected region has been used to watch a movie, you can change it four times, for
a total of five possible regions. When you insert a DVD movie, if the disc is from a
region other than the default, a dialog box is displayed that informs you that you have
inserted a disc from a different region. This dialog box displays the region for the
inserted movie disc and the current player region, along with a list of new player regions
and countries you can select. When you select a new region, a warning is displayed stating
the number of region changes remaining before the change is written.
The DVD-ROM drive enforces the number of changes. Each time the region is changed, the new
region is written to the DVD-ROM drive firmware. Once the limit for region changes is
reached, the DVD-ROM firmware locks out further attempts until the drive unit is replaced
or reset by the manufacturer.
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The information in this article applies to:
SYMPTOMS
If you are playing a DVD movie and eject the disk by manually pressing the button on the drive without first stopping the DVD player, you may receive the bluescreen error "Error Reading CD-ROM in drive X:" (X being the letter of your DVD drive).
WORKAROUND
Quit the DVD player program before manually ejecting the DVD movie, or click Eject in the program to eject the DVD.
MORE INFORMATION
Not all drives exhibit this behavior. This behavior occurs on the TORiSAN DRD-U424. Please comment this article if you find additional DVD drives that display this behavior with the DVD player in Windows Me.
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6-3-8: DVD firmware "Time Out" error (Author-Dell-Cody)
Dell -Cody
07/25/2001 12:30 PM
As a workaround for this timeout error, power the system off, open the case, and disconnect the IDE and power cables from the other drive on the Secondary IDE channel; the NEC DVD-ROM drive should be the only drive connected and powered. Close the case, power the system with the firmware update floppy in the drive, and allow the firmware update to proceed. Once it is complete, again power the system off, open the case, and reconnect your other Secondary IDE device.
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6-3-9: DVD Freezes / Hangs (Author Dell-Cody)
Dell-Cody
Try the following steps, as they may help correct the problem:
Make sure when the DVD player is running that it is not being affected by external
programs. To shut down active applications press [Ctrl-Alt-Del] to bring up the Close
Program window, which will display a list of running programs. You will need to select
each one in turn and press the 'End Task' button at the bottom. However, leave the item
'Explorer' and 'Systray' running, as they are necessary for Windows to operate. As you
shut each of the programs down, you will need to bring the Close Program window back by
pressing [Ctrl-Alt-Del] again. As you progress through this post, you should test DVD
playback multiple times. It is important to perform the previous steps before every test
to ensure other programs do not interfere with the test, as applications will restart
after boot-up.
Try using several different DVDs to make sure that an issue with a specific DVD is not
causing the problem.
Disable Autorun.
To do this:
Go to Start | Settings | Control Panel | System - under the Device Manager tab.
Open CD-ROM, then double click on the CD-ROM device.
Click on Settings at the top.
Remove the check mark next to 'Auto-Insert notification'.
Click OK and close out of the Device Manager.
Shutdown and restart your system.
Then try manually starting the DVD player instead of using the Autorun to play DVD movies.
Some third party players may need this feature disabled.
Disable any screen savers by visiting the screen saver tab under the display icon in
control panel. Also try disabling Advanced Power Management by visiting the Power
Management icon in Control Panel and setting all options to Never. If these changes work,
you may need to leave these changes in place, or change them as needed for playing DVDs.
If you still have problems, in order to make sure software is not causing the issue,
restart the computer and hold down the CTRL key at the very beginning of the system
boot-up sequence and keep it held until you get the Windows 98 Startup Menu. At this
screen, choose option 3 and hit Enter to get into Safe Mode. When a dialog box appears
describing Safe Mode, click OK and the desktop will appear at 16 colors, 640x480
resolution. Click START | SETTINGS | CONTROL PANEL | SYSTEM | Device Manager and double
click Display Adapters. Remove the display adapter listed, then click Close. Go back to
the MSCONFIG program and remove the checks from in front of SYSTEM.INI, WIN.INI, and the
Load Startup Group Items boxes, then click OK and restart when prompted. Windows 98 should
reboot and redetect your video card, reboot again, then come back to the desktop with the
default color settings. Test DVD playback at this point.
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Movies play, but white lines appear randomly on the screen. In virtually all case, the problem is being caused by an IRQ or memory range conflict.
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In many cases, this is a problem caused by an unusually high video refresh rate. DVD systems seem to operate best at vide refresh rates of 60Hz or so. Try lowering your video refresh rate to 75Hz, or lower, through the video card's Properties dialog or Display control settings.
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This problems only occurs when a VCR is connected between the "TV output" of the video adapter and the TV set. Video display adapters with TV output capability will enable MACROVISION copy protection during DVD movie playback. The MACROVISION encoded video signal will effectively prevent a VCR from recording a watchable movie
If you videotape a MACROVISION encoded movie, and then play it back, you`ll typically see occasional glimpses of the movie interspersed with 20 to 30 seconds of no picture or possible just a blue screen. Even if you`re not actually recording, the VCR attempts to compensate for the MACROVISION encode signal and this generally leads to the symptom described. To resolve this symptom, simply connect the video card's TV output directly to the TV set using either the "composite" or "S-Video" connections.
Note: Remember that sound connections are completely independent of video connections, and if you wish to hear the DVD movie through the TV set, you will also need to connect the audio output of the PC to the TV set.
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There are many possible, often simple issues that can prevent a disc from playing in an optical drive:
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DVD Player software can not find the title track and / or information files on the disc. If you`re trying to use a DVD disc, the disc may be scratched or damaged. Clean the disc if possible or replace the damaged disc. If you`re simply trying to play MPEG video from an ordinary CD, click OK to close the error dialog---the disc may still play.
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The DVD drive may not have been properly configured by Windows or may be disconnected.
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This error almost always suggests that the hardware MPEG-2 decoder card cable may not be properly connected. Check the cable connection on the hardware decoder card, particularly "VGA In and VGA Out" and see that the cable is secure. Try another cable if possible. Start the DVD player software, press the Settings button and select Video Configuration. Press the Auto button to have the video automatically configured.
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6-3-17: After upgrading the video card, DVD movies will not play. (Quote: Bigelow 4th Edition)
Chances are that your new video card is neither defective nor incompatible--instead, the problem is that the link(s) between your video and DVD drivers have been broken. When new video cards are installed, they change entries in the registry that associate MPEG playback with video card rivers. The new video card's MPEG drivers are probably not DVD compliant, but since they took precedence over the MPEG drivers of the the older DVD system, this is likely to be the problem. Try reinstalling the video card from scratch and then reinstall the DVD drivers and software. This should reinstall the proper DVD MPEG-ready drivers and correct the problem.
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You will most likely need to purchase a new version of DVD player software for your system now that you have upgraded to Windows 2000. Intervideo does have their version 3 available for download.
It is available at this link:
http://www.intervideo.com/jsp/Products.jsp
You could also check with the company that makes the Cinemaster software - Ravisent Technologies - here: http://www.ravisentdirect.com/
Another option would be to check with one of the freeware or shareware sites for other software to play DVD movies.
Check these links
I am sure that there are other shareware sites besides these.
Happy choosing.
Steve
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6-3-19: Freeware MPEG Audio/Video/VideoCD Encoders (from: JnMHayes)
The following link contains information on free Encoders that might benefit our members,
http://www.mnsi.net/~jschlic1/
Best Regards,
John
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6-3-20: Digital Video Info and Trouble Shooting (Author: Ron B)
This site will help Dell Dimension and other PC users figure out their firewire and Digital Video problems. Information will be added as time permits. Click on the links above and see if you can find the help you need. The resident experts at Dell Talk - Dimension - Video can help as well.
http://www.geocities.com/delldvinfo/
Thanks,
Ron B
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6-3-21: Software update for WinDVD and XP (Credit: Mike~cde3cvr)
From Mike:
Version 2.1 worked fine with my XP but Intervideo offers a free patch to bring it up to version 2.8 which is XP compatible.
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6-3-22: DVD Play on TV-Out with NVIDA Geforce2MX (Credit~Eric Gossiaux)
Right click on your desktop.
The Display Properties should now be displayed.
Select> Settings>Advanced: (The DellM781s and 64MB NVIDIA Geforce2MX with TV Out
Properties) should now be displayed.
Select> Device Selection, you should now have a choice to "Select the output
device on which to display Windows": Analog Monitor or TV.
Select> TV.
Format: NTSC-M (Change Format if this is not selected.)
United States of America
Video output format: Auto select.
Select> Apply
YOU MUST HAVE THE TV ON. WITH YOUR TV REMOTE SELECT TV/VIDEO. WATCH YOUR SELECTION WITHIN
15 SECONDS AND USE YOUR MOUSE TO SELECT YES. If you don't select within 15 seconds, your
monitor will return to the Geforce2MX Properties again.
(The same procedure applies when you want to return using your monitor again.) Your
television is now your monitor. Your COMPUTER monitor will go BLANK, BLACK, to NOTHING.
Eric L. Gossiaux
Satified Dell Customer
Owner of two Dell's
XPS166 and 8200
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I had my S-video cable connected to my TV through the VCR. So due to the macrovision my
movie was going bright then dim then bright again when displayed on the TV. There is more
than one way to solve this, and they have a full section that deals with macrovision over
here:
http://www.digital-digest.com/forum.html
I ended up downloading a program called "remote selector" from:
http://www.remoteselector.com/
I hope this helps someone, Sand Tiger....
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6-3-24: Trouble shooting DVD problems with Windows 2000 (Q 249334)
This article from Microsoft is a little long, please follow the link below
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q249334
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6-3-25: Choppy DVD Issues (Dell Members ~ 8)
(1): Choppy DVD play.
Dell-Stephanie:
*Right click on the "My Computer" icon
*Click on "Hardware" tab
*Click on "Device Manager"
*Double click on "Sound, video, and game controllers"
*Right click on the "Create SB Live!" and choose UNINSTALL
At this point, if your computer does not restart on its own (mine did not) then restart
your computer.
Once the system is back up, pop in a DVD and play. Mine worked fine after that. I asked
the tech what did/would I lose by uninstalling the SB (Sound Blaster) sound card, and she
said "nothing, Windows XP put the drivers back on your system when you restarted
it." She said it was just some sort of quirk in the XP operating system (NAH!). I
told her I thought it was a strange fix, but hey, whatever works, right?
Hope this helps!
Toalgang
(2): Choppy DVD
I had enabled Indexing service under windows XP's search engine, and it added my DVD drive
to it's catalog. You can either disable the "Use Indexing for faster searches"
under search options or go into the administrative tools in Control Panel and remove the
offending entry.
Windows was trying to index while I was trying to watch a DVD, hence the stutter!
Iowa Cornhauler
(3): Choppy DVD
Dissable UDMA for the DVD Drive in the BIOS, enable DMA in My Computer Settings, result: all works!
Author ~ Unknown
(4): Un-install and re-install PowerDVD
PowerDVD
please follow the steps below to uninstall PowerDVD and then re-install it:
(a) Start --> Programs --> Cyberlink Power DVD (select to "uninstall"
it)
(b) Start --> Run (key in "regedit") --> HKEY_Current_User -->
Software --> Cyberlink --> delete "PowerDVD" & "PDVD"
folders.
(c) Start --> Run (key in "regedit") --> HKEY_Local_Machine
--> Software --> Cyberlink --> delete "PowerDVD" & "PDVD"
folders.
(d) Re-install PowerDVD
Also, please uninstall all the burning programs on your PC first, before
re-installing PowerDVD program to retry those steps above again.
Power DVD ~ Support
(5) Quote form PTherrien:
Hi Everyone!
If you are having any problems creating DVD's, playing DVD's, Video editing, etc. Please try the following since this is the only solution that made any difference. It solved the problem totally!
Believe me when I say that everything has been attempted. I have lost many hours of sleep and too much money for it to be something this simple. But it worked instantly when I tried it, and I can change it back to recreate the exact problem I had before I fixed it.
Your problem may have to do with SOUND acceleration not video playback. Video skipps simply because it is being dragged along with the skipping audio track.
Try this...
Go to...... CONTROL PANEL, Sounds & Multimedia, AUDIO, Advanced (under playback), Performance.
From here you will see 2 sections....Acceleration and Sample Rate
Step #1....Change the acceleration setting to ONE level BELOW what Windows says is RECOMMENDED (notch #2)
Step #2....Change the Sample rate conversion to what Windows says is RECOMMENDED (notch #1)
For some unknown reason, when Dell systems (sound settings) are set to FULL or even ONE level above full acceleration, it causes DVD playback to skip, chatter, fail, etc. As well as video editing, MediaPlayer video playback.
This problem does not occur when playing sound by itself. It's when BOTH are playing together.
Please respond if this has helped anyone with this issue!
Paul
(6) Index Patch from Dell (Care of ~ Help Appreciated)
This link should give you a straight shot without "logging in". It has helped a number of members in the past but sadly there does not seem to be "one -fix -it-all" for choppy DVD play.
(7) Drive setting in BIOS set to Off rather than Auto (Care of ~ Thug)
Thug,
I have a 4550 and the DVD had choppy sound and video during playback. I tried many suggestions. Uninstalling the IDE controller so system could re-detect it. The DMA patch: because the only option was PIO, turning off the indexing, setting the CD-RW to Master and DVD to Slave then trying DVD Master and the CD-RW to Slave along with different jumper combinations, turning down the acceleration, but none of that worked (for me anyway). The problem was solved in the BIOS setup. I found that the setting for the Secondary IDE cable was turned OFF. This was the factory setting. I guess that's because my computer only came with one CD-ROM. Once I changed the setting to AUTO and rebooted everything worked great!!!! I hope that this fixes the problem for some of the people who read these forums because it will be my way of giving back to a forum that was very helpful to me.
Thugs steps:
Ok here ya go. We will start from the beginning. Some of the directions I give may not be needed by you but it is easier for me to describe this way. After pushing the button to turn on the computer hit the delete key a couple of times, this must be done before the XP logo comes on. You know, the one that has the blue bar scrolling from left to right on it. Blue scrolling bar for XP Pro and green bar for XP Home. At least that's what is is like on the two of my computers. After you hit the delete key you will see two options in upper right hand corner of the screen. The option you want is F2. Hit the F2 key. This will take you into the BIOS. Once your in the BIOS use your arrow keys to highlight the SECONDARY IDE (Drive 1:) It may be Drive 0: depending on whether you are connecting it as a Master or Slave. Drive 0: is Master and the Drive 1: is slave. If you only have a CD-ROM (or CD-RW) it is probably connected as a Master so it should be described on Secondary IDE Drive 0:. The Secondary IDE Drive 1: will probably be set to OFF. Highlight that line in your BIOS and hit the enter key. A window should then open. Use your right arrow key until the AUTO option is selected. Then hit the Esc key. That should close the window that you were just in. Now your ready to exit the bios. Just look at the bottom of the screen and it will tell you what key you hit to save and exit the BIOS. Your computer will then reboot. This worked for me and I hope that it will work for you. O... I forgot to mention that I have it connected to the same ribbon as the CD/RW.
(8) Use of msconfig.exe (Care of ~ Antar Bolaeisk)
I have actually just discovered a means to solve all my DVD blues. What I did was:
1) Go to the start menu and hit run.
2) Type in "msconfig.exe" and hit enter.
3) Hit the services tab along the top.
4) Scroll down to "Creative Service for CDROM Detection" and disable it.
5) Restart the computer and all DVD woes will be over.
This solution will probably only apply to Dell computers with a Sound Blaster Live! sound card but it does work so don't bother with any of the other solutions if this applies to you. Please reply and give your report for if this worked for you. Alternatively what you could do is un-install, restart and then re-install your sound card as this also works but has to be done every time you want to watch a DVD.
As an added extra this solution also stopped the colours of my visualisations from becoming inverted in Windows Media Player.
Follow these instructions at your own risk. I cannot guarantee that this solution will work for you or even that it work damage your computer but if you follow the instructions to the letter you should notice no adverse effects. At least I haven't noticed any yet...Yet.
Antar
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6-3-26: Insert Disc error (Dell Members ~ 2)
(1): Disc not recognized:I think I fixed it....in the virus scanner properties (I have
Norton's Anti-virus), under advanced, there is an option to disable scanning all
removeable media for boot viruses everytime mounted....this did the trick for me so
far....Let me know if it works for you!
-Paul
(2): Insert Disc error:
The Parallel port can interfere with CD device detection in Windows XP. Use the following
steps to change the parallel port.
1. Go to My Computer - Control Panel
2. Select System | Hardware | Device Manager
3. Click the "Plus" sign next to Ports
4. Right click on LPT1 and select Properties.
5. Select Port settings
6. Select "USE ANY INTERRUPT ASSIGNED TO THE PORT" and click OK
7. Close all windows and restart computer.
Auhor ~ Web Search
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Download the Firmware update for the Samsung 616 T:
From Reep:
This worked! I downloaded the file from the Dell library (B6W24301.exe). I had to search the Samsung SD-616T DVD ROM Drive itself since, for some reason, Dell didn't record that this drive came with the PC. I had actually downloaded this file before starting this thread but since the firmware had a date of 9/16/2002 and I ordered the PC 3 months later, I felt I was already at this firmware level. A mistake on my part. After reading your message I decided to try it out. The download description from Dell was incomplete. Without my previous DOS experience, I would have been lost. The file extracts to a floppy in the A: Drive. Being that there was an autoexec.bat file I concluded that I'd need to restart the PC with the disk in the A: Drive. Such was the case. This file upgraded the firmware from F308 to F310. (For others who might be following this thread to fix their DVD problem, don't forget to take the diskette out of the drive when you are prompted to Reset Your PC. Samsung neglected to add that statement to their instructions that are displayed on the screen by the FLASH DOWNLOAD PROGRAM.) The DVD Drive now plays my Fellowship of the Ring Special Extended DVD Edition. I haven't tried out the online features of the DVD yet. I have read that one who has upgraded to F310 has had problems with the online features but not with the video portions.
Thanks again,
Reep
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6-3-28: Samsung SW-248F stopped reading CD`s (Care of ~ D.Desselle)
Issue posted in Dell Forum:
I have a dimension 2400 with a Samsung cdrw/DVD SW-248F, and it just stopped reading CD's. The AutoPlay starts then stops, I go to my computer to open the CD drive and nothing is there under that drive. Dell has sent me a new CD drive but still don't work. It will play music CD's but will not let me install new software. Going by the forum looks like a lot of people are having the same problem... What can be done to fix this ?
Thanks
D.Desselle
Solution posted:
Thanks Jeff, I finally got the problem fixed !! I went to my computer, then the CD drive icon right clicked went to properties, clicked on AutoPlay, then clicked on restore defaults, then apply ok, and that was it, sounds too easy, but it's back working. I think what happen is when you down load other types of media software, like QuickTime, Real One that want to take over that drive, and the AutoPlay stops working, Now everything is back to default using Windows Explorer.
D.Desselle
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6-3-29: Samsung SD-616T 16X DVD ROM Fix with MTKflash (care of- David from Texas)
I have a Dell 8300/Windows XP Home Edition (SP2) computer system (P4, Bios A05) equipped with a Samsung SD-616T 16X DVD ROM drive and a NEC CW-RW NR-9300A 105B CD drive. I downloaded the F311 firmware update (DOS, A03, file BR66264.exe) for the Samsung drive from Dell Support and applied it exactly as specified. Upon rebooting the computer, I was horrified to observe that my Samsung DVD drive “D” had crashed. The tray would not open, the power light would not come on, and the drive was not recognized by either BIOS or Device Manager. The NEC CD drive still worked, however.
I tried several different methods to activate the drive:
(1) Returning BIOS A05 to the original factory settings.
(2) Upgrading BIOS to version A07.
(3) Clearing NVRAM (see later).
(4) Reseating the DVD and CD data and power cables (unplugging the cables, booting up, reconnecting the cables and rebooting).
All to no avail. The DVD drive was still not recognized. After I upgraded to BIOS A07, I got the following error messages:
SATA primary drive 0 not found (O.K. because a SATA drive was not present).
SATA secondary drive 0 not found (O.K. because a SATA drive was not present)
Primary drive 1 not found (O.K. because a slave primary device was not present)
Secondary drive 0 not found (Not O.K. because this is the DVD ROM)
Secondary drive 1 not found (O.K. because this is the CD ROM and its default setting is OFF as a slave to the DVD ROM)
Under BIOS, I changed the configuration settings on all these drives from AUTO to OFF except for secondary drive 0 which I left on AUTO. All the error messages disappeared except for:
Secondary drive 0 not found (the DVD ROM)
I send three separate E-mails to Dell Technical Support requesting guidance and advice. None of the responses were helpful. Although I was quite explicit in detailing the problem, two different technicians recommended that I update the Samsung SD-616T drive with BR66264 (F311) – the exact same flash program that had caused the problem to begin with. When I pointed out how ridiculous this was, I was informed that my DVD drive was out of warranty and that I should contact Dell Sales to purchase a replacement!
I then checked out several CD/DVD user discussion forums and found at least 20 postings describing exactly the same problem. Unfortunately, none reported a solution that was demonstrated to be effective. I reviewed all the postings and did the following:
Shut down the computer and disconnected the power cable.
Removed the computer cover and disconnected the IDE cables and the power cables from the DVD ROM and CD ROM drives.
Replaced the cover and booted up the computer to Windows XP.
Shut down the computer and started up in BIOS setup (pressed F2 when the Dell logo showed prior to Windows XP power up).
Cleared NVRAM (While in BIOS, depressed the Caps Lock, Scroll Lock, and Number Lock until three green lights appeared on the keyboard. (Had to change from a remote mouse and remote keyboard to conventional hard wired units at the beginning of step 3 to do this.) Pressed Alt “E” and waited for a beep. Then changed secondary drive setting from AUTO to OFF then back to AUTO. (This step is probably unnecessary but if no “changes” are made in BIOS then the “save changes” command does not appear. Saved changes. (Note: Could find no jumpers on the 8300 board so could not follow the “clear NVRAM” procedure as described in Bulletin
FA1023538 for Dell computers shipped after 1997).Booted up the computer to Windows XP then shut down again and disconnected the power.
Reattached the power cable and the IDE cable (at the “end” connection) to the DVD drive but left both cables to the CD drive unattached.
Rebooted the computer.
Downloaded MTKFLASH 1.55 (mtkflash1.55.zip) from http://etna.rpc1.org/mt/index.html and unzipped the files to a freshly created “C” directory, C:\Firmware.
Downloaded the E 310 (DEL).zip file (
RPC1 free) from samsung and unzipped to the C:\Firmware directory.Made a bootable floppy (“A”) disk. (See: http://dhc014.rpc1.org/howto.htm)
Copied the files in C:\Firmware to an “A” subdirectory, A:\Firmware
Shut down the computer and rebooted from the floppy.
At the “A” DOS prompt, changed to the A:\Firmware directory and typed: Mtkflash 3 w/b /m 310del.bin
(Carefully read http://dhc014.rpc1.org/howto.htm for an explanation of the flash protocol. It will vary depending on the location of the drive being flashed and the nature of the firmware update. In this case, the “3” designation identifies the DVD drive as being the IDE secondary master (i.e., the drive to which the “end” of the IDE cable is connected). 310del.bin was the selected flash program because it was the original version on my DVD drive.
The program ran flawlessly and ended with a “reboot computer” command.
During the reboot the hitherto dead “D” drive sprang to life. It was now recognized by BIOS and Device Manager. Most important, the tray now opened and the drive read DVD’s.
15. Shut down the computer, disconnected the mainpower cable, and re-attached the IDE and power cables to the CD drive. Rebooted.
The above procedures restored the Samsung SD-616T DVD drive to its original functional state. Maybe all the foregoing steps are not absolutely necessary but at least these are the procedures that worked for me. I post them here in the hope that it saves someone the countless hours of frustration I experienced attempting to correct the DVD crash caused by the F311 firmware update. If this posting further obviates nonproductive correspondence with inept Dell technicians then that is an added bonus. But a word of caution here. Do this at your own risk. What worked for me, may not work for you.
In my opinion, Dell firmware update F311 is seriously flawed and I strongly recommend against its use as described. I’ve not attempted the Samsung 311 update with the 1.55 mtkflash program. I’m so overjoyed at getting the DVD drive back to its original state that I’m not going to risk it.
Finally bear in mind the frequent warning posted on this forum, namely that the use of nonauthorized firmware updates will invalidate Dell drive warranties.
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