How To Open Cd Drive On Dell Desktop

Most of the time you’ll eject the CD/DVD drive on your PC through a button on the drive, but some laptops don’t include a button. Here’s a way to do it right from the desktop. If you’d like to safely eject USB drives from your desktop, we’ve got you covered with that one too.
I have a Dell Inspiron 3880 computer. Can I install a CD/DVD drive unit in this computer. It has what I think is a place for one but did not come with one installed.
This video will show you how to manually open a jammed CD or DVD drive on your computer. Follow these instructions to open up a jammed CD or DVD drive on your computer: You will need a fine tipped Allen wrench, very thin screwdriver or even a paper clip. Find the very small hole on the front of the drive, and carefully insert your screwdriver in there. Push it all the way to the back and the.

Your computer can play music CDs and DVDs and, if it’s powerful enough, can show films and TV programmes on disc. You can also buy new computer programs on disc or put blank discs into your computer to do things like copying photos, documents or music.

Wait for your Dell computer to recognize the USB drive and install any necessary drivers if you are prompted. On the lower left portion of the screen, click the Windows 'Start' button. Click on 'My Computer' or 'Computer.' A list of drives connected to your computer will appear.

CDs and DVDs are played within optical disc drives that come as part of a computer. There are two types of these drives:

readers – these only read from the discs
writers (also known as recorders or burners) – these can copy data on to discs.

Many drives are reader-only, but writers are usually only available in combination with readers.

It can take a bit of detective work to figure out how to play a CD or DVD.

Follow these step-by-step instructions on how to put a CD or DVD into your computer

Step 1: First, you need to discover what sort of disc drive(s) you’ve got.

The PC above has two drives: a DVD reader at the top, and a combined DVD/CD reader/writer underneath. These are actually drawer-like trays, into which a DVD or CD is laid and then the tray is closed.

The laptop above has a combined DVD/CD reader/writer on the side of the keyboard.

All-in-one and touch-screen computers often have a drive in one side, immediately behind the screen.

It’s also possible that access to the drive is only a slot. If this is the case, as it is in Apple iMac computers and iBook laptops, just gently feed in the disc and the computer will take it.

Step 2: Now you need to find out how to open your disc drive. This is normally done with the push of a button.

In the PC (right), the ‘open’ (or ‘eject’) buttons are underneath the tray.

In the laptop (left), the button is actually on the tray.

Press the button on your computer. If the tray is motorised, it will open completely. If not, it will open slightly and you can gently pull it open.

Step 3: Put your disc into your computer’s disc drive:

The tray is ‘indented’ so that the disc sits in it.

Which side of the disc is uppermost is important. The side that has writing on it should be facing up. If you have a computer with a slot drive, you should first position the disc so that the written side is facing you and then push it in gently.

Step 4: If the tray is motorised, press the button again and it will close. Don’t push it in manually – you could break it. However, if it isn’t motorised, press the tray gently until it clicks shut.

Step 5: An icon of the CD/DVD will appear on your computer desktop. At the same, you’ll see a menu asking you what you want to do with the disc.

The above menu appeared when an audio CD was put into a PC using Windows 7. If it had been a DVD or a computer program disc, a similar menu would have appeared. Once you’ve made your choice, the appropriate software will come into action to play the music, allow the film to be shown, launch the computer program or whatever.

Step 6: To eject the disc, close the software that you’ve been using with the CD/DVD. Then drag the CD/DVD icon to the ‘Recycle Bin’. This should cause the tray to open automatically if the drive is motorised so that you can remove the CD/DVD. If it’s not motorised, gently pull it open.

Don’t try to remove the CD/DVD from the tray without first getting rid of the icon from the screen – otherwise you could damage your computer.

Done!

Stephen Baird-Parker is a qualified ICT teacher.

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When you insert a compact disc into your cd drive in your computer there are a few ways to view the contents of the cd. Obviously if the compact disc is blank there will be nothing to see, however if there are files you can view, copy, and paste them to your computer. Also if there are music files such as mp3’s, you can play them from the disc. If you have a game CD it will most likely open and show up on the screen.

How to open a compact disc automatically to see the contents?

Sometimes an Autoplay dialog box will appear automatically when you insert a cd. This will enable you to choose what action to take with the cd. To see the contents of the compact disc that you have just inserted simply press on Open folder to view files. See the screenshot below. This screenshot was taken from Windows Vista, however in Windows XP it looks very similar.

How to change the Compact disc auto play options?

Windows Vista

Go to the start menu, choose control panel.
Find the Autoplay icon. Double click on it.
Choose your action for each process by pressing the drop down arrow to choose form the list.

Windows XP

Go to the start menu, choose my computer.
Find your cd rom icon.
Right click on it and choose properties from the menu.
The CD drive properties will appear.
Go to the Autoplay tab.
Press the drop down arrow to see your choices. Music files, Pictures, Video Files, Mixed content, and Music CD. See circled arrow below.
This is where you can change what happens when you insert a cd.

If you choose pictures from the list, the actions will change to things you can do with pictures. You can choose to print pictures from a cd, extract them to a folder, view a slide show, and so on. If you choose music you can choose to play the music, open the folder to view files, or take no action at all. After you have set your options press apply and then ok. See the screenshots below for more details. Windows XP CD auto play options are very different to Windows Vista.

How do you open a compact disc when auto play does not work?

If your cd does not open automatically then you can open it through my computer. Simply go to the start menu, choose my computer or computer for Windows Vista.

When my computer appears you will see all drives on your computer. Some compact discs will show a unique icon so you can tell where they are, however a data cd will look similar to an empty cd drive. The only difference may be a name, however in this case there is a string of grey text saying how much free space is on the drive. The drive with nothing in it has no grey text as it is empty.

Simply double click (click the left mouse button twice) on the cd drive you want to open to see the contents. The same applies for both Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Why do you need to know how to open a compact disc?

If you have a computer you will need to know how to open a compact disc to view contents of a disc. Maybe someone might give you a photo cd or a cd with files on it. Or maybe you will want to install a program from a compact disc.