Problems reading CD/DVD drive in Windows Explorer

[Guest]

Lately I have been having problems reading CDs and DVDs. I am able to access
(and copy) CD content through the command prompt, but if I try to select the
drive in Windows Explorer it will not allow it (focus jumps to My Computer
for instance), and nothing happens if I right click it and select Open or
Explore (Properties works fine though).
I have tried a Clean Boot, but get the same problem.

Any suggestions?

 

[Guest]

Try removing the hardware in device manager and then rebooting. Also, if you
loaded and burning software recently, you might want to uninstall the new
software before removing the devices in device manager.

Upon reboot, the cd should get recognized without the registry changes made
by the third party burning software.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the suggestions. However, the problem remains after removing the
device from Device Manager and rebooting. Haven't installed any burning
software lately.

Cheers

 

[Guest]

Is this machine part of a domain? Is there a group policy set up on the
domain (or locally) on writability? Do you get any error messages of any kind
or does windows explorer act as if nothing occurred?

 

[Guest]

No domain, MSHOME Workgroup. Really don't know about any group policies, I
assume there aren't. It's a Thinkpad T43 that came with Windows XP
pre-installed. No one else has access to it, and I didn't (knowingly) change
any policies. No error messages. When opening Windows Explorer, I have the
tree structure on the left, I expand My Computer and click on the D: drive.
Focus remains on it (the D: drive) for less than a second, and then focus
moves back to whatever had it previously. e.g. to the C: drive or My Computer.

When selecting My Computer in the left pane, I can the drive in the right
pane. The Total Size and Free Space show up. I can access the context Menu,
but Explore and Open does not work, Eject does though. If I try to search the
drive no files can be found (but as I mentioned earlier there are files and I
can access them using the command prompt). The Properties Page shows File
System as Unknown.

thanks again