optical drive for Philips Combi dvd player
 

I have a Dell Optiplex 260 computer which came with a CD-ROM. I changed this drive to Philips Combi CDRW16x10/DVD. The drive will not read DVD. On entering setup, the drive shows as CD-ROM with Combi listed. I was told by Dell that I need a dvd optical assembly to read dvd. Is there anyway I can make my dvd drive work without this device. Help is much appreciated.
Thx.

What operating system is on this computer?
Windows? If so, which one?

The system came with Windows XP and I upgraded it to Windows 7 Home Premium. To find out whether this problem is operating system related, I reinstalled windows Xp and the same problem existed, Now it is Windows 7 Home Premium.

Thx.

Have you considered that the drive may simply be bad? Those are really old drives at this point in time. Optics age, as the coatings can tarnish over time. But unlike camera lenses, laser eyes are cheaply made.

If you have Windows 7, and the drive is plugged in correctly, and it doesn't work -- it may just be dead.

Another option may be the jumpers, on the back of the drive, by the wires. Are you sure the drive jumpers are set correctly? Sometimes "cable select" is the best, but other times it must be manually set as master or slave -- which is determined by how the computer's IDE wiring is set up.