Up until a few weeks ago my cd and dvd rw drives were working fine.  Recently when I put in a disk I can not open that disk unless I first open it in windows media player.  If I put in a new program DISC I can not use the RUN program because it does not recognize the disk.  When I try to look in my computer it show the drives but it does not read anything on the disc.  I've uninstalled and INSTALLED all drives and ran an UPDATED vurus scan with negative results.  Have you made any changes to your system prior to this incident? Also, have you tried ruinning a Windows Update by going to http://www.microsoft.com ?

[glb]Flame[/glb]I have made no changes and I have checked windows for updates.  My system is up to date.  I am running Windows XP.I too have this same problem,  with my cd drive, and with my dvd-r drive.  My dvd drive stopped working first, says no disc is in the drive, then several months later, my cd drive was not recognizing more and more cd's.  Now it seems to only read one, once in a great while.  I can hear the drives spinning, but then NOTHING, and it says no disc in drive.  I too am using XP, and have made no changes to my system prior to them going out..any ideas?I had this problem, had to get the drive replaced. Check if it is still covered by the warrentyCheck the RIBBON and power cables are connected securely in the back of the drive, and on the motherboard.
Playing copied discs can also cause the laser to unalign itself or get dirty, could be this but i dont know much about it, try looking it up on google.