PC Laptop Burner not working

What app are you using for burning? or are you using built-in windows burning?  What OS?

Boot the PC using Linux Mint (with Unetbootin you can create a Booting USB stick with it), Then try burning something with that. If it still doesn't work you'll either have to get your bad Drive replaced, or use an external USB drive if you want to write something to DVD or CD.

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=mint

http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

The program you have may need to be configured...try using Windows Explorer to burn something as it will tell us whether you have a hardware problem or not.

I'm using Win 7, 64 bit. This computer shipped with Vista.  I tried burning with
Roxio Easy CD and DVD, and with a free program called Free Easy Burner.
I could not find a burner in Windows.

To burn in Windows, insert a blank disc and it should prompt you with a menu.  On this menu there should be an option for "write files to disc" or something to that extent.  Select that and it will open an explorer menu.  Now click and drag a single file to the disc, and on the left-hand side, it should give you an option to "burn these files to disc".

There is no prompt when blank disk in inserted.  It just sounds like it
wanrts to autoplay, over and over.  However, I located Windows DVD
maker.  It gave an error code and ejected the disk.  The code is:
0X80004005.

Darr247 -
I followed the directions and uninstalled the drivers for CD and DVD devices.
After restarting the computer, I tried again.  Sadly, nothing changed.  It still
plays the disks but gives the same error message when trying to record.
I'm going to research drivers and see if I need a special one for 64 bit 7.
Thanks - it seems there is nothing more to try.

Have you booted with Mint like I asked you to? That will show you whether the drive is working properly or not, and if it is working properly using mint then it is an issue somewhere within windows or a software you installed.

I would try to separate hardware/software problems first. Do you see any Exclamation mark/question mark in your device manager? Install/Uninstall/reinstall your writing software first (Nero or else). Software can become corrupt time to time. Upon bootup (before OS launched, hit the PAUSE/Break key), do you see the text assigning IRQs for device? It could also be a bad cable as well. If your burner has problems on another PC (a friends' computer?) and you isolate your problem being the burner, yes get it repaired/exchanged.
Good luck!

rindi -
Using Mint looks a bit complicated to me.  A Dell technician spent over
an hour remotely looking at my computer, and even downloaded
firmware for the driver.  He then transfered me to another technician who
also looked at my computer and told me it was a software problem she
could fix for $125.  I chose not to pay.  I believe there is a driver somewhere
that will solve the problem.  My goal now is to find an update for driver
ts1462d, or a replacement that works with Win 7 on a Dell Inpriron 1525.

Mint isn't complicated at all. All you need to do is to start unetbootin, then under "Distribution" select Linux Mint and under the Version "10_Live" (or if a newer version is available that newer version). Then under USB Drive select the drive Letter to your USB stick, and then click on OK.

After that Mint will be downloaded and installed to the stick. When finished, safely remove the stick from the PC (or if you did this on the PC you have problems on, leave it there). Boot the PC with the problem from the stick (you should be able to set where to boot from when you start the PC, on Dell's you usually press F12 at bootup to get the boot selection). Then select the USB stick, and mint will bootup.

When it is up and running select "Sound and Video" via the menu, and then "Brasero" which is the burning utility, and then try burning some files to a CD. If that doesn't work your burner needs to be replaced. If not, it isn't a hardware problem you are experiencing.

]
I downloaded unetbootin-windows-575.  The only USB choices were E or G.  The
4 gig flash drive is E which is too smal for the ISO image.  The external hard drive
is F which was not one of the possible choices.  When I chose C is still stopped at
5 of 70 files.  I then got a message that it might not been installed properly, so I
re-installed it with the same results.  See screen captures.
5.jpg
6.jpg

It appears you're trying to make a bootable disk from a movie, not from a LiveCD iso.

Yes, the ISO file is a movie.  That's what I want to burn.  Maybe I don't understand
what is live and what is not live.

I believe the suggestion to try Mint was to see if your burner worked from within that operating system... if it does, then the problem is strictly in windows (e.g. drivers), not in the hardware.

Unitbootin could not recognize the burner either.  Told me to
insert a disk -  so itlooks like a bad burner.

Unetbootin doesn't use a burner, it is just a tool to make bootable Live USB sticks out of Linux Distributions like Linux Mint. I had asked you to create a USB stick with Linux Mint on it with the help of Unetbootin. After that you should have booted the PC from that Linux Mint USB Stick you made, and then from within Mint (which is a Operating system including many utilities, including brasero which can be used to burn CD's, and they run just from that stick, don't need any installation), you should have tried to burn a CD from that OS. I don't think you really have tried that.

Opened drive E
Opened Mint4Win.exe
See SC1
Dialog box opened and clicked on "Demo & full installation"
See SC2
Then SC3 opened and I chose "reboot now"
see SC3
When the reboot finished there was nothing new on the
desktop and I was back where I started.
On other trys I got  other results
see SC4, SC5, & SC6
I also tried booting from "boot" on SC1 but nothing happened.
SC1-.png
SC2.png
SC3.png
SC4.png
SC5.png
SC6.png

You have to boot from the stick, not open it from within Windows. After it has been written to the Stick shut down the PC. Then turn it back and, since it is a Dell, press F12, that should bring up a boot selection where you can select that you want to boot from USB and not the Harddisk. After that the PC will boot to Linux Mint and not windows....

It does boot to Mint, but requires partitioning the hard drive. I can't take a
chance on screwing up this hard drive, as I have things I need for work and
other things.  It does look like a great program though.  I'm going to install
it on my other computer.

No, it doesn't require you to partition the drive, that would only be needed if you want to install mint. You currently don't want to install mint, you just want to run it in "Live" mode directly from the USB stick, without installation, and then try burning a CD using it.

I opened mint4win.exe
see SC7
Then the "no disk in drive" notice came up. (even though a CD was in the drive)
See SC4
Next, I clicked on continue and followed the reboot instructions
See SC3
I booted from the disk and my desktop re-appeared as usual with no change.
End of story
SC7.png
SC3.png
SC4.png

I hope you find a soft wall, rindi.

If you are opening "mint4win.exe", you aren't booting that mint USB stick you made, but you are starting a windows program from within windows. I asked you to boot directly from that USB stick, not to start any program from within windows on it. Mint4Win.exe is a windows program, not a Linux program. Linux programs don't end with "exe".

I may have hit the wall.  I booted from USB (the stick), opened Linux, and found
the CD/DVD tab.  I placed a CD in the tray and the screen said all the right
things, i.e., the CD to be copied will be in the same drive as the disk to burn, etc.
I clicked on BURN and nothing happened.   I waited  for over two hours and there
were no indications of a copy being made or anything else.  I'm now inclined to
believe I have a hardware problem.

From the Dialog you got it sounds as if you selected to make a copy of an existing CD. For that to work you must first insert that CD to copy from into the drive, and only after that the blank CD. You have done it that way?

Yes!  All burner programs I've used work that way.

Then it does look like a bad burner.

rindi - Thanks for your incredible patience

rindi -
Last follow up.  I installed another burner and all works fine.