First, it was my CD-RW that stopped responding.

Now, it's the regular CD ROM.

I went into the device manager, and found the following error message on both of them:

A driver (service) for this device has been disabled. An alternate driver may be providing this functionality. (Code 32)

So, now I need the drivers for the following two devices:

ATAPI CD-R/RW 24x10
Samsung CD-ROM SC-148C

MAN I need new hardware...

This is a possibility:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060

If you are running XP there are no drivers needed. The error is a service disabled perhaps by a program or driver.

If the above is not relevant then go to the Device Manager and right click > Uninstall both drives (not drivers) then reboot.

XP will re-detect the drives and reload the XP drivers.