It was working fine all day today until I put in a newly burnt CD-R (burnt on another computer, by the way, this one is just a plain cdrom drive), a CD-R which seems to have been faulty (if that's possible). This CD had nothing but video files (no audio), but when I put it into the computer Windows Media Player popped up and told me that it cannot play that type of audio file :confused: . Confused I checked the E: drive under My Computer I saw one small audio file at something like 650 kb, but no videos, although the properties said that the disk was nearly full at somewhere around 650 MB.

Then I ejected it, put in a different CD-R and... nothing happened. Checking the E: drive under My Computer again I got a box telling me to 'Please insert a disk into drive E:'. I've tried about five more CD's (not just CD-Rs) after that and got the same result each time.

My computer's a Compaq using Window's ME. There are no exclamation marks in the Device Manager. And using System Restore didn't fix it. Any help?

Well if I understand you correctly, you are trying to play a DVD (with photos) in a regular CD ROM drive. This will not work. Only a DVD player will display video files. Another thing to keep in mind is that not all CD ROM players will play all CD's. Some players simply won't play certain manufacturers CD's. I hope this answered at least half of your questions.

No, it was a CD (a newly written CD-R) with a bunch of small video clips. Other newly written CD-Rs from the same pack (Memorex) all burnt on the same computer (not this one) worked perfectly well just minutes before, and then this CD-R goes in and the problem occurred.

I've since tried that CD-R again, other CD-Rs, audio CDs, and a game CD, all of which worked without any trouble before, but don't work now. All I get is the 'Please insert a disk into drive E:' pop-up.

My hp cd writer won't read any cds. I installed an extra dvd drive in the expansion port and slaved it off the cd drive and still neither will read a disc. Is it possible the ribbon connecting both drives to the motherboard is defective?