I have an ATAPI CD-R/RW 12x8x32 in my E: drive and a Pioneer DVD-Rom DVD-115 in my F: drive. I am able see them and check properties and such on them but can not get them to function. When I put a disk in they will go through the motions but nothing happens. If I try to make them do something through "my computer", a little poster comes up telling me to insert disk even though a disk is in. If I check properties no matter what is on the disk it shows it to be full. Any help or suggestions appreciated. Thank you.

Have you checked in device manager? Make sure that you have the correct drivers installed. Look and see if it tells you if it has a problem with this device or not.

The device manager thinks everything is just peaches and cream. It tells me no driver files are required or have been loaded for either device. If I go check for new drivers it tells me the best driver is already installed. It states that the device is working properly. I think it is confused.

Try cleaning the laser lens of each device using canned air (available at discount and office supply stores). If this helps get a CDRom cleaner (available at discount and office supply stores) and use it to thoroughly clean the lenses.

If you by chance find the answer to this problem please let me know. I have a friend whose computer is experiencing the same problem. He has a HP Pavillion with DVD player and CD/RW that was installed at the factory. I did the delete and reboot deal in device manager. I checked the IDE cable. I tried just booting up with one device plugged in and it still presented the same problem. I swapped IDE slots on the motherboard with the hard drive. The hard drive worked fine but still had same problem with the other two devices. I find it hard to believe that both devices would get dirty lenses at the very same time so I haven't tried that. In the meantime my friend is getting someone else to look at the puter. If I get an answer from him I will pass it along. This is one of those "I got to know" deals.