Solved! Dell 600 samsung sn-124 cd drive firmware failed

[kellyr2010]

I have a dell lattitude 600 with a samsung sn-124 cd drive.
i tried to update the firmware and the update failed.
i then rebooted and the bios starts up and then i get a white screen
device not recognized. the light on the cd drive blinks rapidly but the tray wont open. and the message says to power down and try again.
nothing works. i purchased a floppy drive and downloaded the 124p cd-rom firmware and tried booting to usb floppy but before the bios finishes
loading it shows the white screen and says device not recognized.
one option is to get a dell refurbished cd/dvd writer off dell.com for 40bucks but i was hoping to be able to fix the problem quickly and without aditional purchases.
any ideas whould be appreciated
thanks

 

[lotri]

If you know how to take apart your laptop, do so and disconnect your cd-drive. It should be able to boot properly after that. Hopefully, your firmware update should work properly and the problem should be fixed.

When you originally tried to update the firmware, how did it fail? Did you make sure the firmware update was for the SN-124? I'm only asking because of this thread I found with a similar problem.

 

[kellyr2010]

well i pulled the cdrom module out and the computer booted. i then ran the floppy dos program to update the cdrom drive but it didnt work. it showed twice that it found the cdrom and the make then the third time when it was going to flash it, it then said it didnt find it and quit. i was going to re-insert the drive after booting windows and try again within windows but i talked to a comp tech buddy and he said its trash so i threw it out. it only read cds no writing and i found a cd writer dvd writer combo on dell.com for 30bucks but have yet to order it, i believe it comes from the states, i am in toronto.
thanks for your reply. also my friend told me dell couldl fix it but it would be the same or more expensive than getting a better replacedment.

 

[lotri]

Well, if you had the CompleteCare warranty, the CD drive should have been covered under that. I think they group that warranty under "Advanced Protection Plan" nowadays.

After the computer booted, you should have re-inserted the drive to update the firmware. But if you're looking for a burner, then go ahead and buy a new one. Something else you could have done is just buy an external DVD-RW drive for about the same price as that combo on Dell.