[Nottingham] dell xps m1330

[stripes]

I have this laptop running Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron and find that
everything works just fine apart from the DVD drive.
I can play CDs, copy files from them etc but DVDs it just won't
recognise, keeps claiming there is no DVD in the drive.

Is this a known issue with this computer when running Ubuntu or is it
likely that the hardware is defective.
I don't know if this computer has ever recognised DVDs it came with
the Dell factory install that was upgraded to 8.04
 but for some reason we never did try to play DVDs on it and now when
we try we find it is out of warranty and not working.

Stripes