by silverarrow » Tue Mar 22, 2011 4:51 am
Have you tried to boot up in live CD, like Ubuntu or Puppy Linux? If they boot up and detect the DVD drive and perhaps even play dvd (or CD), you can assume there is nothing wrong with the hardware. However, Linux distros probably need to be installed on a partition on the harddrive and restricted drivers need to be downloaded to actually play any dvd. From live CD it should at least be able to detect the DVD rom. This is pretty easy to do; download Ubuntu or Pupupy Linux, and burn to CD; then place in the DCD rom, and boot computer. It should boot automatically, but sometimes it is needed to manually choose "boot from CD" under "Start up Options" when computer is booting up. It is often asked for you to press "F2" or "F12". If the linux live CD fails to boot or detect any CD/DVD rom you can fairly safely assume DVD harware is damaged, and needs to be replaced or repaired. This is luckily not as diffucult as it might sound, at least replacing it and DVD drives are available online.
Your laptop boots up and works normally in any other respect?