I have this drive that comes with my Dell Optiplex GX620. It has written DVD R/RW on the front, however it won't recognize any DVD I place in it. When I try to mount I get the reply "No medium found".

CDROMs read/write no problem.

Just to confirm: it's a hardware problem and I should call Dell?

When you power on the machine, have you tried using F2 and checking the BIOS settings? There's a couple of those boxes here and the DVD drive is set up as Drive 1: PATA-0. It's identity is TSSTcorp DVD+/-RW RS-L532B.

When the box boots the hard disk is picked up as /dev/sda and the DVD drive is picked up as /dev/hda.

Also, do you get any messages in /var/log/messages or /var/log/syslog when you try to mount a disk?

First, check to see if anything is mounted in /media/cdrom (or equivalent optical drive). Also, make sure you're trying multiple media types (retail dvd, burned dvd image and data dvd). It could be an issue with the fs type on the dvd.

If it's detecting in bios then boot w/f12, select 'boot to utility partition' or 'diagnostic partition' (if you haven't blown the partitions away completely the diag partition is there; if not then use the 'drivers and utilities' disk, which may also be labeled as 'resource disc': the diags are on there). Once you get in to the Dell 32bit diags go to 'Custom Test' then highlight your optical drive and run all tests (without a disc in there; if you had to use the resource cd method make sure you take that disc out of the drive before starting or it will throw an error). If you're not getting any errors then it's not the drive itself.

If you didn't get any messages then get back to linux and drop a disc in. Make it a retail dvd, whether or not you can play it, and force the mount type:

cd /media
mkdir dvd
mount /dev/<your dvd drive> ./dvd -t iso9660

See if that will mount it and make it readable. Too late at night, can't think of anything else. Good luck, post your results.

Gryyphyn, out.

I had a 620 also, Dell had a *drive* BIOS fix for the specific drive.
You aren't crazy, the drive would work with some disks and not others.
This is not a motherboard flash, but a drive flash.

If the DVD drive is the one you ordered with the computer, the
flash upgrade should be flagged on Dell's site when you enter
your computer Express Service Code in the support area.


Of course, standard flash disclaimers apply

I get indeed the correct DVD drive as PATA-0 in my BIOS.
After I try to mount I get cdrom: open failed in /var/log/messages

Looks like I have to upgrade my BIOS. Wish me good luck.

Thanks a lot to all of you guys!