Hello all, I've got quite a stumper here. I bought my computer (a package Compaq Presario P4 2.5 GHz 512 RAM etc.) 3 years ago at a Day after Thanksgiving sale (got a great deal). Anyway, Every CD and DVD drive it has had has slowly ceased functioning little by little, and they always follow the same pattern.

When I bought the machine, it had CD-ROM and CD-RW drives. After about a year, the CD-ROM quit recognizing new disks, unless it was placed in the computer on startup. Then it stopped recognizing disks altogether, until one day, the Device Manager did not list the drive at all and I could not reinstall it.

Fine, I thought, bad drive. I bought a new 8x Optorite DVD-RW/CD-RW drive to replace it, since I wanted a DVD drive anyway. After some finagling that drive worked excellently.

Shortly after installation of the new drive, the factory CD-RW drive started going kaput in the exact manner as the previous drive. I thought, this computer must be assembled with cheap CD drives, at least my DVD drive works.

Guess what? Now the DVD drive has done the SAME EXACT THING, and being of good build from a different manufacturer, I can only wonder if my system is doing something to cause them to lose functionality.

I have tried everything on all the drives from updating drivers, to flashing firmware, to replacing physical wiring from the motherboard to the drives and nothing has worked. Furthermore, Device Manager has never displayed a problem with the drives. They always show "this device is working properly" (dispite the opposite being the case), until the drive mysteriously drops out of the system.

Can anybody help? Does this happen? I can't find anything on the net like it.