I have a Dell Insprion 1150. I am running XP Home Version. I cannot remember the last time I used my DVD player but I recently got a course and I need the DVD player, but it is not working. It is not showing up in My Computer and I have uninstalled it and reinstalled it several times, but it still isn't working. I went into System and Device Managers and there is a big ! On the DVD player. Does this mean I need to get a new one?

No, the (!) means the device has been detected by the OS/Computer, but no drivers are working.
Go back and right-click on the device and open the Properties
Click on the Driver tab
Click on Update Driver
Make sure you're connected to the internet and select Install the software automatically (recommended), the click NEXT
If the drivers are found and installed, reboot and try again
If drivers are not found, go back into Device Manager, make a note of the COMPLETE device name and post it back here, we'll try to help you find drivers (or you could Google search it yourself, hehe.)

I tried all of that and went through the troubleshooter for the device, but it still is not working. The following is the message I got when I tried to update the drivers.

Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Code 39)

Click Troubleshoot to start the troubleshooter for this device.

Um, I told you to post here the full model # of the drive from the Device Manager if it failed. Do that.

It is HL-DT-ST RW/DVD GCC4243N. Is this what you need?