I have this drive for my Dell Inspiron 2650. It worked well at the beginning except the recording speed. After a half year, it started to behave strangely. At first it refused to read some disks (cd-rom, for DVD, it always works), but if I tried second or third time, it worked again (now I cannot repeat this trick:(). Then the burner stopped in the middle of the task which costed me several disks for a single task.

Now I have mainly 2 problems:
1.it stops to record. It seems the drive cannot recogonize blank cds. If it does at the beginning, it would give error message during burning.
2.it cannot read some CD-ROMs. Even the system software from Dell.

I just update the firmware for this drive from Dell. But it doesn't really help.

Is there anybody meet this kind of problem? Can anybody tell me how I could solve this problem (just pass the warranty :( ).

Thanks in advance.

(in reply to przemek)

It sounds like a "dirty lense" I would remove the cover and clean the lense with a "very soft cloth" if you feel uncomfortable doing this a shop can do it for you.

(in reply to przemek)

not solved my problem yet. I keep trying though :-(

(in reply to przemek)

I hope it is just a dirty lens problem. It is really painful. I mean I can bear to have only a DVD-rom instead of a writer. But if it cannot read cd-rom properly, that would be a disaster. I hate this machine, I have changed my screen twice in one year. Bad luck.

Not try to clean it with very soft cloth yet, I will first consult our pc responsible person. But I did try using a cleaning disk to clean it, nothing changed.

BTW, In the worst case, if it turns out to be a hardware problem, do you think it is possible to upgrade this drive to DVD-DR on this type of pc (Dell Inspiron 2650)? I mean if I really need to spend money to replace it maybe I should just go one step further.

Hope I could still use this one:)

Thanks anyway.

(in reply to przemek)

Just come off phone to HP they reckon they have had no problems like ours being reported and they think that the laser is shot as there are three laser's in the head, 1 - dvd, 1 - cd & 1 - copy laser... Looks like weve all been shot and can't recover the head...[:(!]

(in reply to przemek)

Here is a new wrinkle in the drive saga. My HL-DT-ST RW/DVD GCC-4240 N is in a Compaq Presario 2800T bought custom built 8/2004. In Feb 2004 it stopped playing DVDs but handles reading CD just fine. Still burns CD fine as well (it gets limited use for that, so perhaps I have not worn that out yet).

It plays the DVD just fine for 1 to 10 minutes, then the picture freezes up and the drive makes three to five thumps or clicks in quick succession. I reinstalled drivers (from the hard drive) and players with no effect. No one has a driver update or an online copy (in case the source on the hard drive is corrupted).

Anyone know where to find the driver to reinstall other than on the hard drive?

I am thinking it is hardware: maybe I have trouble with the DVD laser (three lasers mentioned in the previous post).

Irate

(in reply to przemek)

I cleaned my lens with cloth, air duster. No big improvement. Still doing fine with DVDs. Can read some cds, cannot recognise blank cds. Although I don't really believe there is any problem with laser head, it is possible that the trail of the lens deformed due to the high temperature (since I got fatal error last summer, that was the beginning of the story). With some skill, it might be repaired but I dare not try it myself. On Dell forum, some people suggested to buy a new drive which seems not very expensive on ebay;)

(in reply to przemek)

Having the same problem as many of you...looks like noone has found a good solution. I can play dvd's fine, but no type of Cd will play at all or be recognized inside windows, dos, or on boot.

Has anyone found the reason for this or am I going to have to replace the drive?

(in reply to przemek)

When I press the eject button on the drive it does not eject. It just
spins down and acts as if it is going to eject but then spins back up
again and reads the disc. It does this for all types of media. I have
been using ye olde paper clip but that is REALLY getting old. My drive
is the Module, GCC-4240N, CDRW/DVD, Hitachi LG Data Storage, Inspiron, SIDE, TK

Please help.

jonrohrer@yahoo.com

(in reply to Ellen)

[Deleted by Admins]

(in reply to jonrohrer)

I have flashed it already

(in reply to Deleted User)

[Deleted by Admins]

(in reply to jonrohrer)

I have laptop Presario 1555AP and HL-DT-ST RW/DVD GCC 4240N, i have problem as described below:

I put in the CD and when I click on the drive it will show that it is either empty (when it's a CD or DVD) and that it has a blank CD in it (when it's a CDRW).
The weird thing is that when I restart my computer with the CD in it, it will then recognize that there is data on the CD.

Another problem is sometime it can write CD, sometime it can not although using the blank CD from the same brand. Sometime restarting the laptop can make laptop write to CD.

ANY IDEAS on what is going on? How I can fix it???

Please help!

(in reply to Deleted User)

I had these problems while still under warranty, and the solution was replacing the hardware.

I have a Dell 8200, with the HL-DT-ST GCC-4240N, running windows XP.

The problems were typical of others displayed in the forum:
- CD burner stopped working
- most data and audio CDs could not be read.
- DVD continued working fine.

The solutions I attempted included:
- trying numerous types of CD media and software for burning
- system restore
- the flash update R59936.EXE downloaded from Dell support page

None of these made a difference. Dell replaced the faulty hardware with exactly the same model combo drive,- it took 5 minutes to replace and functioned immediately.

(in reply to yopy_yogie)

excuse for my limited knowledge, who is the maker of HL-DT-ST? I know Hitachi-LG-Data-Storage (HLDS), but no idea about this quite similar HL-DT-ST? same maker or ?

tks.

quote:

ORIGINAL: przemek

i'm looking for the upgrade for my strange burner HL-DT-ST rw/dvd GCC-4240N??

(in reply to przemek)

LG uses this prefix "name".

(in reply to lienly)