I went through alot headache to fix the Dell GX240 DVD/CD-RW lockup problem, and I just wanted to share the solution with everyone. If you have a Dell system containing a DVD/CD-RW combo drive, there's a good chance that it may be a Samsung SM-308-B OEM model, the T100 version. Out of the box, a Dell Optiplex GX240 would not play DVD movies, or write CDs for me correctly. Here's what you do: 1. Update the firmware on the drive. Go to support.dell.com and search for a file named "d4c03203.exe". (Don't bother with the service tag lookup, these files aren't listed) This will create a boot disk that will do the update automatically. 2. Update the SoundMax software. Go to support.dell.com and search for the file named "3019-a13.exe". Be sure to uninstall the old version, or else it will prompt you to do so. Without this update, the DVD's will play as if in fast forward. Once these two tasks are completed, everything should work fine.

Thanx for the info - always useful to know what fixes what - especially Dell etc.