My son got a copy of the computer game Spore for Christmas. The software comes packaged on a DVD-ROM disc. Here's the problem: My disc drive can't read it, or recognize it in any way. It does not run, and when I attempt to look at the disc via MY COMPUTER window, I get a Windows message that reads, "please insert a disc into drive D:". But the disc is already in. Facts: The disc drive door is stamped with a DVD r/rw logo. I am not inserting the disc upside down. The disc drive works fine with all other CDs, CD-ROMs, and DVDs. I know there is nothing wrong with the "Spore" disc because I tested it on another computer. I have used the trouble shooting device found at control panel/administration/device manager/DVD/CD-ROM drives. It says there is nothing wrong with the drive or driver. My disc drive is an NEC DVD RW ND-3500A. I have searched the web, and it appears that NEC has been bought by another company and I can't find any driver updates or patches. I read that I could try uninstalling my driver - and hoping that Windows will reinstall it - but that seems pretty scary. I don't want to be without a disc drive driver, and I'm not sure if I can figure out how to get Windows to do it - or if a compatible driver is out there. I also have a copy of NERO Express v7.5.9.1. Not sure if that matters - I'm beyond my range here. Any ideas? I have considered buying a new disc drive, but I'm not even sure if that is the problem since it works fine with all my other discs. Help?

DVD drives don't need special drivers. The drivers are included in the operating system & I don't know what you mean by "patches". You may be thinking of a firmware update but that can be risky business. http://support.necam.com/Optical/nd...

Thanks for the help, Jam. I followed the NEC link you suggested and attempted to update the firmware. Unfortunately, the file didn't work. I get a fail message stating that the "Target NEC ND-3500A is not found correctly." They state on the page that they don't support firmware upgrades. Nice, huh? The thing is two years old and they don't care if it works... I've heard that Spore's owner, EA corp. is so paranoid about piracy they're overzealous about disc security. I tried uninstalling Nero because I read that EA might actually set their discs to look for burners on your computer. This Spore disc is the only thing it can't read. Any ideas what I should do now? Thanks again! Any ideas?

Hi,did you get your problem sorted? I had a similar problem a friend put in another "dvd multi recorder/cd-rw"works fine,BUT none of the drives reconize a blank disk,i cant burn photos or music,nothing..to cd,do you have any ideas that would help?

I'm having the exact same problem. The spore does not load properly on my desktop PC, but every other CD loads just fine. But, the computer acts as if the Spore CD isn't even in the drive. It looks blank, like there's nothing there, not even a little whirring start up sound when I stick it in. Yet, I tried it on my laptop and it loads up just fine. Any solutions would be very helpful.