I just noticed today that my DVD drive is no LONGER correctly communicating with my computer.
On the one hand it appears to still be getting power from the computer since when I insert a disk it will spin and the green light on the front will light up; however the drive is no longer listed in My Computer and if I TRY something like a DVD and then run a DVD player the player will not detect the disk either.

In addition if I leave a disk in it when turning on the computer the startup will hang in the early stages (on the black screen where there is the flashing underscore( _ ) symbol). Removing the disk will CORRECT this problem and the computer will  continue to turn on as normal after that.

So its still talking to the computer - just not all the way. I have made no changes to my system in the last few days (no new hardware or software barring updates to things like AVG) so I am at a loss for what has happened. My DxDiag is attached to this post - anyone got any ideas?

[attachment deleted by admin]One of these may help:
1. Uninstall the drive through Device Manager.
Restart computer. The drive will be automatically reinstalled.
or...
2. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060
Restart computer.
or...
3. Download, and run Restore Missing CD Drive patch
Double click on cdgone.zip to unzip it.
Right click on cdgone.reg, click Merge.
Accept registry merge.
Restart computer.
or...
4. Go to Device Manager, click a "+" sign next to IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers.
You'll see two items:
- ATA Channel0 (or Primary Channel)
- ATA Channel1 (or Secondary Channel)
Right click on each of them, and click Uninstall. Confirm.
Restart Windows. They'll be automatically reinstalled.Thanks - will try them out and report back!OK I am trying method 3 at the moment - also I appear to be having a problem with methods 1 and 4.
With method 1 I don't appear to have a listing for the drive *unless I am looking in the wrong place*
With method 2 I also don't appear to have the two listings you mention - attached is a screen dump of the device manager view that I get:

[attachment deleted by admin]Methods 1, and 2 - fine.huh? how do you mean - that its fine that the method is not POSSIBLE or that it is possible and I am looking for the wrong name?

Also method 3 failed to work - now trying 2.
In addition during startup the screen that appears black with loading text on it near the start (which for me appears for only fraction of a second) stats that it can't detect and drives - I can't say more than that since it really does only last for a moment before the computer continues to load

edit also the linked microsoft method stats that its for Xp - I assume that it will still work for vista?1 - if drives are not there, you try other methods
2 - if those entries are not there, that's good.

Yes, it works for Vista.hmm it appear not to work for me
I have tried the first part of their fix (the download) and something loads, but nothing happens
will try the more manual approach

edit - err  where is the Registry Editor?Start>Run, type in:
regedit
Click OK.sorry not been back for a few days!
I tried the changes and still no luck with things. The drive was still not being noticed. I did pester a friend though and he suggested that it could be due to the Bios getting something messed up - going into the Bios it seemed that the computer was booting up the disk drive before the harddisk - finding out that the drive was not a harddisk with the OS on it and THUS ignoring it.
Setting the boot order to have the main drive first has now solved the problem

still thanks for your time and help Bronie Good job
However, it looks like you need new DVD drive....