i'e gone to device manager and removed both cd and dvd players. tryed a reinstall with add hardware wizard. it says the hardware was found but had a prob loading driver, corupt in registry...i tried 3 different reg scaners and a bunch of virus software .....i cant use my cd players can ne 1 help thanks

Also your external...?

Were things OK before? Was this setup working? Did you change anything?

Any idea what triggered this problem?

Try physically uninstalling the drives & reinstall one device at a time.

Also go to: start | run | sfc /scannow

You will need your XP CD to do this.

Ya I'vedone all that ..My external dvd drive is not recognized ,i get this error
Windows cannot start this hardware device because its configuration information (in the registry) is incomplete or damaged. (Code 19)

says this for both devices in
also if i run regedit a black box pops up ,and says regedit.com and closes??

That regedit behavior is indicative of a virus.

You might try this if you haven't already: http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/

Also:
Please follow the instructions HERE & then post your log in a new thread in the Spyware, Adware, Viruses and HijackThis Logs section.
(Not in this section please).

Code 19
Windows cannot start this hardware device because its configuration information (in the registry) is incomplete or damaged.
To fix this problem you can first try running a troubleshooting wizard. If that does not work, you should uninstall and then reinstall the hardware device. (Code 19)
A registry problem was detected.
This can occur when more than one service is defined for a device, if there is a failure opening the service subkey, or if the driver name cannot be obtained from the service subkey. Try these options:

On the General Properties tab of the device, click Troubleshoot to start the troubleshooting wizard.

Click Uninstall, and then click Scan for hardware changes to load a usable driver.

Restart the computer in Safe Mode, and then select Last Known Good Configuration,which rolls back to the most recent successful registry configuration.