CD drive won't launch inserted CD/DVD - help

Suddenly when I insert a CD or a DVD into either of my CD/DVD drives the CD
or DVD is not recognized. When I open "my computer" the icon for either drive
doesn't show a disc name. Then when I click on the drive icon to launch the
CD the "my computer" window goes blank and freezes. I start task manager and
it tells me that "my computer" is not responding. If I click end task the
computer freezes. Any suggestions? Everything else seems to work fine on the
computer and the only action I can associate with this trouble is that it
seemed to start after a "windows update". I have tried to restore the
computer to an earlier config but "restore process" gives me a message that
it cannot restore to any of my selected restore points.
Thanks.
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XPUserLance