Dell Inspiron 8000 DVD Player Problem

[danalv]

Hello! I am new to the forum, and am hoping someone can straighten me out. I purchased my Inspiron 8000 new several years ago, and due to a virus, had to re-install Windows ME (using the factory disc) to get everything to work again. Unfortunately, the DVD player (HLDS 8X DVD Slim-line DRN-8080B) capability had disappeared. It will try to play (shows the shift to widescreen), then reverts back to the program-initiation screen. I have downloaded and installed every Dell-provided update to the drive (firmware and drivers), plus the ME updates recommended by MicroSoft. I have also tried several different (from the factory-installed WinDVD) player trial-programs, and the only ones so far that will work are EasyDVD and RioDVD (neither of which are very flexible programs). It seems that any DVD player program that is more sophisticated (e.g., WindDVD 2000 and PowerDVD 7, both re-installed) just will not load up. I have a feeling that it is nothing more that a setting that needs to be changed, but in searching several forums, I cannot seem to find the answer. There was even one user on the Dell Forum that had the same problem, but seemingly did not get it resolved. Can anyone help? Please?!?

[danalv]

I finally gave up trying to fix the problem, wiped the drive, and started over. I re-installed Windows ME and WinDVD (PowerDVD would not work with the earlier version of DirectX), and lo and behold, DVDs now play just fine. I guess (as suggested on another forum) the Trojan virus had done damage to files or registry entries that I was not able to correct with upgrades and simple re-installs. Anyway, hope this helps someone else with a similar problem!