My dvd/cd writer will not recognise blank cds, keeps saying insert disc

Does it read discs with data on it? Have you used these same discs before with no problem? If so , did this just start happening? Has anything been installed or added to PC recently? Have you tried movie and music cds?

Yes, all was fine UNTIL my son uploaded his wedding photos from a proffessionally?? Made disc by the photographer in Thialand. It has done it to the dvdrw in my laptop, and now he`s managed to do it to the dvdrw and the cd/combi writer in my main PC

Here is generic MS fix that works on issues similar to this,
You can no longer access the CD drive or the DVD drive, or you receive an error message after you remove a CD recording program or a DVD recording program in Windows XP: "error code 31" (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060)