CD/DVD drive keeps disappearing

I keep "losing" my CD/DVD drive on my new Dell.

Happens almost every day but not constantly. CDs don't get mounted, and if I look in My Computer the CD drive icon is gone. In the Device Manager too, the CD ROM device category is gone. Conversely, in the Hard Drives category some mystery item shows up, with a garbage character name.

Restarting seems to fix it. But still, WTF?

Called Dell Support, spoke to a lady named Kudo-san. We did the following two steps.

• Set the BIOS to default settings.
• Uninstall the CD drive from the Device Manager. Restarting the PC reinstalls it.

She will call back on Monday to ask if things are OK.

This new Dell is turning out to be quite a hassle.

Internet up and down today

Checked Air Station settings page. Fails on Name Resolution step.

Called Flets helpline. Received guidance as follows.

Create an internet connection as follows:
Internet Properties -> Connections [tab] -> Setup [btn in top right]
Run wizard
[o] Connect to the Internet
[o] Set up my connection manually
[o] Connect using a broadband connection that requires a user name and password
ISP Name: [anything]
User name: guest@flets
Password: guest

If we can connect here it means that the problem is either in the router or with the provider (e.g. Nifty)
http://www.flets/
(Note there's no .com or .jp at the end)

Was able to view it fine, indicating I may need to call Nifty. He gave me the following Nifty numbers.
0120-818-275
03-5753-2373

Called Nifty and was given these new numbers.
0120-322-210
03-5860-7600

Called Nifty but was told it would be a 20 minute wait. Seems to be OK for now so I won't bother.

Excel 2007 crashing

I am running Office 2007, on Windows XP Service Pack 3, brand-new Dell Latitude E6500.

Excel was crashing without fail whenever I tried to close a document with using the close box (top right). I mean Close Window, to close the document, not the one to close Excel itself. It didn't crash when I closed my doc using the Close menu item in the Office Button.

I seem to have resolved it by disabling the COM Add-in "Send to Bluetooth":c:\windows\system32\btsendto_office.dll