785. CAUTION: Dell 15-5000 Bad Opt Drive Mount and Need to fix AC3165 driver/setup

Update 1/2/17 - BINGO! It took another level of escalation to convince Dell that the drives could be ok, but the drive mount or connection inside were at fault. I considered that to be the case when I had to physically remove the drive to clear an error condition and than reinstall it. The next manager up immediately initiated a PC System Exchange and I received a new PC in 2 days. Installed it and tested immediately before any other installations/customization. It was SO-O-O-O QUIET! I can't believe I wasted over 10 hours with the first-line technical support idiots who HEARD THE NOISE (clattering, chattering, tick like a Big Ben clock) and saw the failures and instead of instantly doing the right thing, continued to bug me about compatibility of CDs. I finally looked up that concern on their site by looking at optical drives and reading the additional documentation re them. In that documentation it clearly states that ALL types of previously recorded discs WILL run! Today I built the new system and started to wipe my data off the bad PC. By tomorrow it will be on a UPS truck going back to Dell. I suppose I should give kudos to the manager Ankit who understood the issue and problems and did the Exchange along with prepaid return of the bad one. Thanks. However, he was also given an earful re his support team who monumentally screwed up! But, what's about 15 min-hours of their time worth?


Conclusion: Don't take crap from a Dell first or second line support and if you are confident re your problem and likely cause, get on the escalation train quickly. I still haven't had an Internet hit, so I'm quite happy now with this Dell.

Update 10/21/17 - Internet running fine now. Dell, after escalating 2 levels is sending a new PC. The problem with the drive might be related to the gouge hole on the drive bezel (face plate) reported. It might be that the mounting bracket is damaged. In 2 weeks we'll be testing new PC and optical drive.

Initial Problem:

So far I have tried 3 HL-DT-STDVD+- GU09N optical drives, the one that came with my NEW 15-5000 series 5700. All are a piece of crap! The first could read only 1 of 13 disks (CD,DVD,Commercial Audio, Commercial movie) and only one time. In other words, the drive failed on every disk tried. All disks run flawlessly in two other Dell PCs (older ones) and the movie runs in DVR Player attached to TV. Dell has been unhelpful other than taking over my system to look at info and run the same tests I ran, which failed! Dell did get two REFURBISHED drives to me, but all 3 were failures in one way or the other. Such as: Never got recognized by Windows 10, never loaded, never did autoplay, failed during play (movie) every time, crashed system once, hung applications, etc.

It amazes me that a company like DELL, selling fine processors, continues to put trash components inside. The drive I had had a date of 6/30/2015! Despite updating all drivers, 2 days after installing the new preinstalled system, the results were as stated. During the 3rd removal, the plastic connection on the bezel finally had enough and broke off! I used electricians on what was left and stuffed it on successfully.

Meanwhile, the tech rep Nio who proudly said she would handle the service request exclusively by email, hadn't responded to 4-5 emails sent until I emailed DELL customer support about the issue. Then she sent me a phone number to call, obviously begging out! Needless to say, she'll get a 0 stars from me on a survey.

So, I don't know where I stand on the Dell Service Request. I reinstalled the 2nd drive since it is the best of the worse. At least audio and data disks, except for one DVD-R worked. Movies are still a problem and I have yet to test burning to a disk which I have read on Internet help sites that I should not expect much, or should I say, more than little.

This entry is a CAUTION to those buying Dell products which I have used for over 14 years and enjoyed! I think I'm old enough to build my own now with good components. Oh, the Wireless adapter, AC3165, has also caused unrecoverable (automatically) intermittent Internet drops, crashed my router twice, blue-screened (seems MSFT on Creator version at least catches things and didn't present a blue screen, but instead a screen to tell you you have crashed and being restarted). I have downloaded a newer driver directly from Intel to try to fix problems (not available yet to Dell).