LiteOn DVDRW Issue

I've had a LiteOn DVDRW drive installed and burning DVD's for roughly six months now with absolutely no issues. However, overnight between Friday May 18th and Saturday the 19th Windows is suddenly unable to recognize my drive. Examining the device in my device manager I discovered the following error message:

This device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device. (Code 31)

I have not recently added/removed any software/hardware from my system--I simply left it running overnight as I usually do.

I have two IDE channels in my system. I have Swapped the IDE cables back and forth in several configurations & have determined that the issue is likely not hardware based. It seems I'm experiencing some strange sort of software conflict.

Several times I have rebooted my system into safe mode to uninstall my drive and/or the IDE controller (I have tried each individually and uninstalling both at the same time). Each time I reboot windows the system will install the hardware normally, then prompt me to reboot the computer. Once rebooted I'm left with the same error message I posted above.

I'm about at my wits end with this thing and would love -any- help someone more knowledgeable might be able to provide.

try this ignore the fact that it blames easycd, lots of things can cause this problem.

Words alone cannot begin to describe my gratitude. "Method One" of your suggestion worked marvelously. It turned out to be a 30 second fix. Once again, I thank you greatly.

my pleasure :)