dell dimension 4500s drive problems

[Groovejet]

I've got a old dell dimension that I want to use for work related stuff.
I thought the dvd drive was broke but after many hours of messing with it I think its to do with the drivers.

I can't find anything in "my computer" about the drive as if its not connected.
And no dvd driver

In the set up when I start the pc I press the F? key and on primary drive 1,sec drive 0, and sec drive 1 it says unknown.
Primary drive 0 is hard drive.

Also its set to boot from hard drive.

The jumper on dvd is set to slave

The dvd is a sm332
HD Barracuda 7200.7. 40gb
And its running XP home
My aim is to install win7 and upgrade memory

Any advice welcome
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[charles5001]

find your dell service tag on the back of the unit. its unique to every dell computer. it should be a sticker with a 7 digit code on it.

here's where you'll find it:

http://support.dell.com/support/top...tem?c=us&l=en&s=gen&~lt=popup&DoNotRedirect=y

then go here:

http://www.dell.com/support/troubleshooting/us/en/19/TroubleShooting/ProductSelector

it will identify your computer and you'll be able to download all the drivers for it in one go.

hope this is what you were after.

 

[Groovejet]

Ive done what you advised and typed in service tag which is 4 no's and one leter and it comes up with
Optiplex 486 le and not dell dimension 4500s like ive got???

 

[charles5001]

Hi,

I'm not convinced its a driver problem as the DVD drive should be using a standard SCSI/IDE interface - normally you don't need a driver for this.

Regardless, the Dell web page for drivers for your computer is here:

ftp://ftp.dell.com/Pages/Drivers/dimension-4500.html

There is a firmware update for your DVD drive in the section called 'Removable Storage - Firmware'

Cheers

 

[Groovejet]

its asking to write a logo/image to floppy disk?
Who uses floppys these days

Is there another way?
If not i'll have to hunt down a disk!

Thanx for your help charles5001

 

[CylonRaider]

Test out hardware by (temporarily) removing Microsoft from the equation.

Boot a Live DVD

 

[Groovejet]

it must be a drive problem.
I looked in Hardware and the drive SM322B appeared, still couldnt do **** with it, but then the next time i boot up its not in bios or Hardware, weird ??

 

[charles5001]

time to buy another one?