I have noticed a great number of people, now including
myself having problems with windows XP failing to see CD-
ROMs, at times like myself after working flawlessly for
months. This problem does not seem to be hardware related.

I have both a reader and a WR burner, they both stopped
reading CDs at same time ..one day they read next day they
didn't.

A fix was to shut down with a valid CD in drive and when
you restart all is OK, however when you insert a CD to be
read a DOS window opens first before the ROM is read. This
seems to work until you shut down with no CD in drive
again.

I Think Microsoft has to look at this one however they
just do the usual thing and blame your hardware or your
installation with no explanation other than re-install
Windows XP.

On Sat, 24 Jan 2004 18:26:32 -0800, "Kevin"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I have noticed a great number of people, now including
>myself having problems with windows XP failing to see CD-
>ROMs, at times like myself after working flawlessly for
>months. This problem does not seem to be hardware related.
>
>I have both a reader and a WR burner, they both stopped
>reading CDs at same time ..one day they read next day they
>didn't.
>
>A fix was to shut down with a valid CD in drive and when
>you restart all is OK, however when you insert a CD to be
>read a DOS window opens first before the ROM is read. This
>seems to work until you shut down with no CD in drive
>again.
>
>I Think Microsoft has to look at this one however they
>just do the usual thing and blame your hardware or your
>installation with no explanation other than re-install
>Windows XP.

Do you have any burner software installed? Which version?
How new is the CD/RW drives?
Have you cleaned them at all?
Do the drives appear in Device Manager or My Computer?
Can it read data, audio and video CDs ok?

Peter Hutchison
Windows FAQ
http://www.pcguru.plus.com/