My Dell Notebook Inspiron B130 CD Burner Won't Work
There are two common reasons a CD burner drive won't work: either the driver for the device has been "bumped off" your computer, or the optical drive itself has been physically damaged. There is no solution for a physically-damaged drive except to replace the drive entirely, but there is a way to restore the crucial drivers and make the drive hum again. You'll try to restore the drivers first, before turning to the ultimate fix--a new drive.
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Instructions
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Driver Reinstall
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Go to "Start," "Control Panel" and "Systems." Select "Device Driver." Look down through the list of hardware devices on your computer. You should see your CD optical drive listed here. If you don't see it listed, the CD drive is no longer recognizable on the system because it may be physically broken. Consider skipping to Section Two: Replace The Drive. If you see the drive listed but there is a yellow marker or a red "X" next to the listing, your drivers are skewed. Continue in this section to learn how to restore the drivers.
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Go to the Dell Support website and the "Driver Downloads" section. Type in the model number corresponding to your "net book." Be sure to look at the product label on the bottom of the laptop for any specific or special model numbers other than "B130."
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Locate the Optical drive driver package for your laptop. Download the file to your computer.
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Open the Dell driver zip file and unzip it using your regular unzipping program. In some cases, some Dell drivers will unzip themselves. The unzipping step will produce an executable file containing the installation program.
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Click on the installation program for the CD driver package. Follow the instructions or prompts Dell provides for the package. If the driver program doesn't detect your CD drive at all, it will let you know this failure has occurred. If this happens, skip to Section 2.
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Reboot your computer if the driver package installs successfully. Open the CD drawer and pop a commercially-produced disc in the drawer. Let Auto-Run start the playback on the disc. If this process fails, chances are the disk drive is physically damaged after all: Skip to Section 2. If this disc plays, but a "homemade" disc, or another disc doesn't play, there's a strong possibility the other disks were merely scratched or damaged---and there was nothing wrong with your CD drive at all! Test many different discs to be sure the problem is corrected.
Replacing The CD Drive
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Replace the entire drive if all else fails. If the drive is physically damaged, there is no repair for this. The most common damage to a CD drive is the failure of the tiny laser reading lens. This lens cannot be replaced. The entire drive must be replaced instead. Fortunately, replacement parts are available and usually aren't very expensive.
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Seek information from Dell--or other sources--on how to remove the CD drive from the B130 base. Conduct a web search on the topic: the information is available all over the Internet. Follow these instructions and remove the drive.
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Look at the part number sticker on the bottom of the drive. Use this number to conduct a search on the web for replacement parts identical to this one. Replacement parts will be available from various new and used sources. Be sure to purchase the correct model needed for your B130 netbook. When the part arrives, simply install it in the open drive bay. Reboot your computer and Windows will find the correct Dell driver for the new CD drive.
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Tips & Warnings
If your Dell laptop is coverd by a warranty, you may want to consider having Dell fix the drive for you. But be warned: this process can take many days or weeks to complete; you'll be without your computer until it returns, and you risk damage in transit as well. It may be faster and safer to do it yourself!
Remove the battery and unplug your B130 before attempting to remove the CD drive.
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