for some reason, a couple of weeks ago my computer decides to have a fit. CDs/DVDs that worked fine previously now refuse to work unless opened with certain programs

(i've got 2 DVD rom drives, 1 plays DVDs, the other burns DVDs. one's only a month old)

take Windows Explorer for example, pop in a DVD movie and for some reason it doesn't want to read it. you click on it and it says 'no disc detected'. however, boot the disc up in Power DVD and voila! this program can read the DVD as well as play it. same thing goes with audio cds. open up winamp and etc etc, you get the idea

now try using a data cd and this is a little tricky. i'm trying to reinstall Win XP Pro, yet, my Windows Explorer won't allow me to read it! i don't think you can reinstall it manually with MSDOS can you? or maybe use Command Prompt instead? but i can't remember the file directories so it seems a little useless

videogames work fine but that's because they have a shortcut button

both DVD drives say they're running properly and i KNOW it's not the dvd drives!

sooo......little help?

Wouldn't have a clue about the explorer problems, but I can help you reinstall Windows XP...

-Put your Win XP CD in whichever CD drive you want.
-Reset your computer and go into Setup.
-Find the bit where you change the boot-up options, and change the first location to the CD drive you put the Win XP CD in.
-Hit F10 and press "enter" (save and exit).
-When your PC restarts it should try to boot-up off the CD, which will take you to a menu from which you can reinstall Win XP. :)

thanks, i'll try that :)

Just make sure you back up everything you want to keep.

Your laser could be faulty... I had a CD writer that wouldn't read disc's but would write to them... Windows also said that they were running properly. So I took it to where I brought it and they replaced it. Oh and it was only 7 months old and hardly used...

Go to My Computer>Properties>Hardware>Device Manager. Find your CD-ROM/DVD-ROM that is screwed. Right click>Properties>Driver>Uninstall. Reboot and see if that fixes it. If that doesn't then check you IDE cables. check your BIOS settings and make sure all the windows inbulit burning shit is disabled. Also search Google for an "ATAPI Cleaner/Remover"