Error with DvD/CD drives

My DvD/CD writer will not work. When I put a CD in the drive it makes a sound for a few seconds and the light flickers but then the noise stops and the light goes out, but it will run DvD's. If I go through My Computer and try to open a CD nothing happens it registers as not being there. If i put in a DvD it works.
I also have just a normal DvD/CD drive and it just stoped working altogether at the same time. It dosen't work for DvD or CD. It also wont work when you restart the computer and try to boot from a CD.

Does anyone no why this is?

Combination DVD/CD drives have two lasers (DVD & CD) so that while one might fail and the other work is not too strange in itself. But adding that the other drive failed completely at the same time is strange.

Have you checked the Device Manager? Both to check out the DVD/CD-ROM drives as well as the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers?

Device Manager start Run... devmgmt.msc


One troubleshooting method is to uninstall the drive or device by right clicking the drive or device in the Device Manager and choosing Uninstall and then rebooting.

In the case of DVD/CD-ROM drives XP will re-recognize the drive and re-load the drivers on the next boot.

If this does not help I would go inside and reset all the IDE ATA ribbon connections both on the drives and at the motherboard.