My DVD-Rom is failing to read discs. I can still burn to it from I-Tunes fine, It will also allow me to read music cds but only using Win-amp. I can play computer games that require a play disc in the drive if the game is already installed with the disc in the drive. But if I want to install a new game, or read music cds, play some of my dvds these all fail to work. Can anyone help please?

From what you describe it sounds like there is nothing wrong with the drive. You are relying on autoplay and it is configured wrong. Open My Computer and right click on the CD drive. Choose the autoplay tab. If you have it set to only one type of file then it may not autoplay (start by itself) other file types. I suggest ticking the bullet at the bottom to prompt each time.

Sorry I already changed autoplay to prompt at each time. also if a disc is in the drive the drive still says there is no disc presnt. even the items that work, such as win-amp. I can use winamp to read/play a music disc put if i look in my computer it still shows no disc, and whenever i double click my dvd-rom drive it asks me to insert a disc. I have tried trouble shooting this for a bit. I apologize I should have mentioned at this point it is a little beyond me, perhaps a software issue. However I have uninstalled, re-installed the drivers and the same with the firmware. Thank you for your help though

What drivers have uninstalled and installed? Is the drive in question properly identified in the POST screens at start up?

The sony DVD-rom drivers have been uninstalled and re-installed. The device usually displays in windows as a cd-rom now instead of a dvd-rom but that occured before I messed with the drivers. The drive shows up in post, I will check in a minute to see if the device is correct but a cd drive at least shows up. once again thank you for your help

Sometimes when multiple burning programs are installed and/or removed the ASPI layer drivers get changed and/or the upper and lower filters also can get pooched. The fix is to re-install the latest version of the ASPI layer drivers. Or delete the upper or lower filters. Google for those two items. Lately the filters seem to be the issue. If the drive is properly identified in the POST screens but not in Windows then I would look into the ASPI layer drivers.