I have a Dell Inspiron 1000 laptop. My cd/dvd-rom will not work and when I check it in Device Manager and My Computer, it does not show up. I get an error code 41. Can anyone help me with this problem? I did follow instructions to remove upper and lower filters but the problem still exists. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Try running "Add New Hardware" and see if it's detected; you might also run it and try adding manually. Make sure it's activated in your BIOS and check to see if there are known issues or updated drivers for your system.

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Common Sense v2.0-Striving to make the world a little bit smarter.

It is listed in the Bios but does not have an indicator(?) next to you and I cannot highlight it? Obviously I'm not very computer savy - how do I run Add New Hardware? And how would I add it manually? I'm lost!

Go to Control Panel and look for the "Add New Hardware" icon. From there you just follow the prompts; it will also let you manually add it.

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Common Sense v2.0-Striving to make the world a little bit smarter.

I checked the drivers and I have the most up to date one. I tried the Add New Hardware and I get a message to put in any installation cd that might have come with the cd-rom. Obviously I can't do that since the cdrom won't work. Any other suggestions?

There should be a setting to skip the "insert CD" prompt; that will also let you try the manual install.

You might want to double check Device Manager and make sure the CD drive isn't just having a device conflict (showing a yellow exclamation mark). If the drive is there, try removing it and rebooting; Windows should detect it on startup.

Generally speaking, if Windows doesn't detect it on boot, i.e. the drive doesn't appear in Device Manager at all, then Windows isn't getting the information from the BIOS. This could mean there's a hardware issue.

If you really want to make sure whether it's a hardware or software issue, you could try running another OS on your computer. Normally this is w/ a Linux LiveCD but you could also use a USB thumbdrive if you have one available. If Linux boots and shows the CD, then it's a Windows issue; if not, then there's a problem w/ the hardware.

Beyond that, you might have to call Dell's tech support and see what they can do for you. Troubleshooting problems via a forum can be difficult.

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Common Sense v2.0-Striving to make the world a little bit smarter.

There IS a yellow exclamation point next to it in the Device Manager. So, do you mean I should delete it and then reboot my computer?

Thank you! Thank you! That worked - you're a genius. Thank you SO much. I appreciate your help.

Not a problem. Most troubleshooting is pretty simple; it just helps if you've seen the problem before.

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Common Sense v2.0-Striving to make the world a little bit smarter.