Thought I would come on here first and see if anyone else has had this problem...I have a Dell Dimension E521...It is fairly new...Out of warranty though...I have 2 disc drives (E drive & F drive) and 2 USB ports in the front of the machine....All of a sudden my USB's and E & F drives will not read anything....Ya think it might be a software problem or what...I can't see them all going bad at once...Everything else is working fine...Please help before I have to call someone in to check it out....Thanks

Thought I would come on here first and see if anyone else has had this problem...I have a Dell Dimension E521...It is fairly new...Out of warranty though...I have 2 disc drives (E drive & F drive) and 2 USB ports in the front of the machine....All of a sudden my USB's and E & F drives will not read anything....Ya think it might be a software problem or what...I can't see them all going bad at once...Everything else is working fine...Please help before I have to call someone in to check it out....Thanks

Run the Dell hardware diagnostics CD/DVD to narrow it down to hardware/software. If you don't have it, you can download the program from Dell's website and put it on a CD or DVD to run.

If it determines that it's software, then you most likely need to go into the hardware device manager to remove the problem components, then reboot and let the system add them back.

Are the disk drives USB also?

Thought I would come on here first and see if anyone else has had this problem...I have a Dell Dimension E521...It is fairly new...Out of warranty though...I have 2 disc drives (E drive & F drive) and 2 USB ports in the front of the machine....All of a sudden my USB's and E & F drives will not read anything....Ya think it might be a software problem or what...I can't see them all going bad at once...Everything else is working fine...Please help before I have to call someone in to check it out....Thanks

I had this same problem with my XPS and it turned out to be one of Windows updates that caused it and no way of telling which one. I had to either update my drivers or replace my drive. With usb updating the drivers worked but there was no update on the optical drive so I ended up replacing it!

Check for updates on your hardware, my best advice. Good Luck! :howdy:

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Windows CE; PPC; 240x320))

u don't replace hardware for a sw error. nevermind I forgot who I was replying to.

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Windows CE; PPC; 240x320))

u don't replace hardware for a sw error. nevermind I forgot who I was replying to.

I was scratching my head at that one too.

:popcorn:

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last year she said a virus fried her motherboard.

Run the Dell hardware diagnostics CD/DVD to narrow it down to hardware/software. If you don't have it, you can download the program from Dell's website and put it on a CD or DVD to run.

If it determines that it's software, then you most likely need to go into the hardware device manager to remove the problem components, then reboot and let the system add them back.

I can't run diagnostics because neither of my disc drives work....

Are the disk drives USB also?

Not that I know of..

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last year she said a virus fried her motherboard.

I have proof something fried that motherboard and I think that the virus started the death of that machine. Now as far as replacing hardware due to Window's updates, you don't believe me, call Dell! They are the ones that discovered that my DVD would not read certain DVD's after Window's updates were installed. If that isn't what caused it, please explain your mighty genuisness, what did?????

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I believe that you believe that's what caused your "issues."

There is a free download you can get from:


DriverMax - free driver updates (http://www.drivermax.com/)

I have been using it on my computer for over a year and run it regularly to make sure everthing is up to date. The only problem I have had with any of the driver updates is the one that pops up for my sound driver. Always makes my computer get very quiet. Everything else works great.

It will give you a list of updates and download sites and does not download anything or install anything until you tell it to. You can also turn on a function that lets you see other user's comments on how the updates are working on their machines.

Good luck.

I can't run diagnostics because neither of my disc drives work....



Not that I know of..

I forget the mortals don't have lots of accessories and parts laying around somedays.

Are you able to download it to your hard drive from Dell and run it from there?

Drivers & Downloads (http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&ServiceTag=&SystemID=DIM_P4_E521&os=WW1&osl=en&catid=&impid=)

You can also look at the drivers at this Dell page and make sure you have the right stuff.

Do this also. Go in the bios, you know when the computer first boots up, by hitting F2 or DEL, whatever it requires and look around in there at the drive and USB settings. Make sure the drives are turned on like they are supposed to be.

A problem that sometimes pops up is the battery on the mainboard goes bad. That battery remembers all the settings for the computer and can cause all kinds of problems when it dies.

I can't run diagnostics because neither of my disc drives work....



Not that I know of..

Choose the hard drive one.

Drivers & Downloads (http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/format.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&deviceid=3841&libid=13&releaseid=R150579&vercnt=4&formatcnt=0&SystemID=DIM_P4_E521&servicetag=&os=WW1&osl=en&catid=-1&impid=-1)

That battery remembers all the settings for the computer and can cause all kinds of problems when it dies.

Wow...the only thing my battery remembers is when to go dead when I continuously leave them plugged in and charging.

If you want me to bring it into work one day and one of the guys here will look at it.

I'm not a computer expert, but my Dell started saying can't find disc, can't find drive. Then it completely died. It was cheaper to replace the whole thing. Also go ahead and back everything up now just in case.

So what was the outcome Duponster?

Thanks to all that replied...I am back up and running now..It was a driver thing..I downloaded a driver detective and it ran all kinds of stuff and told me there was a driver problem...I downloaded what I was told and it seems to have fixed the problem...Thanks again to you all...For ME to fix a problem like that was something big..Believe me..

Thanks to all that replied...I am back up and running now..It was a driver thing..I downloaded a driver detective and it ran all kinds of stuff and told me there was a driver problem...I downloaded what I was told and it seems to have fixed the problem...Thanks again to you all...For ME to fix a problem like that was something big..Believe me..

And you doubted me... :drama: :lmao: