Vista - My DVD RW is now a CDROM

I brought a Dell Vostro 1510 with Optiarc DVD+-RW AD-7640A ATA Device slot load on it last year and everything was working fine until 2 days ago when I was trying to burn a Data DVD and suddenly the program stopped responding. I thereafter closed the program using task manager. But to my dismay, the hitherto DVD RW+ does not recognise DVDs anymore and it only recognises CDs. Any time a slot in a DVD Disk, it eject it and ask me to insert a Disk into the drive, this it dosent do with a CD.

I have tried to download the driver so as to reinstall it but its been difficult. I am afraid of uninstalling the driveras the driver DVD that came with the laptop is no longer recognised by the DVD RW device. pls advise me on what to do

I hope it is not a Hardware problem..., pls, if it is, is it possible to change this slot load DVD RW device.

I AM CRYING FOR HELP, SOMEONE SHOULD PLEASE HELP ME, ANY HELP WHAT SO EVER WILL BE MORE THAN APPRECIATED AS I AM SO MUCH DEPENDENT ON THIS DEVICE.

Maybe I should also say I live in a Third world country where i might not be able to get repair due to lack of service centres, is their anything i can do? I am a student with poor resources

please help me

someone shuld please reply me, its URGENT!

Try to do what i did with my cd rom .. maybe it will solve the solution .. or maybe there's a settings changed in the cd room . go to control panel >>>hardware>>cd room and then change the setting to be as defult...

Does your dell computer In the warranty period???

You might also try going into device manager and uninstalling the DVD/CD and reboot letting Vista find the burner and reinstall it for you.

Thanks for the advice, I have done the two-restored the default settings and also uninstall and re-booting- but none seems to have worked. I also check the status of the drive in Devive manager and it reads - DRIVE IS WORKING PROPERLY!, I feel its an hardware problem.

The computer is still within the warranty period, but i dont think their is any Dell service center in My Country-NIGERIA. The DVD drive is a slot load Type, is it possible to change the Optical lens of this type of drive or even replace the whole drive?

Again, thanks for the advice, any more help will be appreciated till this drive starts to work properly.

Thanks for your concern.

The proper way to fix your problem is to uninstall the drivers for your DVDRW.

Download the driver to your desktop.
The correct driver for your DVDRW is located at this URL: Drivers and Downloads
Double click on the file. That will load the proper drivers for your DVDRW.

Yes I agree with Home4thewinters the next step is to search for an update for the firmware of your DVDRW drive. Good luck.

Thanks I have done that too but it didnt work. I have contanted a Dell authorised service provider in my country and they should be able to help me

Bye for now