if you un-install it and restart your computer as Jephree said, windows will detect it as a new device and install the drivers for you.

if this doesnt work and the cd doesnt spin when you put it in (the cd drive remains silent) then it could be a motor problem, thats what happend to mine, the motor broke on it

WDC WD400VE-75HDT0 is a hard drive not a DVD/CD drive.

Do not uninstall your hard drive.

Uninstall your DVD/CD drive.

oh, where do i find my dvd/cd drive in the device manager?

also, my computer has started to make a ringing (like a bell, but faster), would this just be fan trouble?

it will be under DVD/CD-ROM drives

it's not there, all i get is:

Could be that the IDE cable is faulty/loose, check the cable both going to your drive and motherboard (the IDE cable is the long ribbon cable connecting your drive to the motherboard)

also, check that it is enabled in the bios (hit F2 or Del** when you first turn your computer)

**varies between motherboards, check manual if your not sure or neither of those work

try booting from startup diskette and start computer with cd-rom support, then see if it reads the cd-rom

i don't understand what you're asking me to do, what's the start-up diskette?

besides this, i've taken out my cd drive and the silver coils seem to be rubbing off, could this be causing it?

the silver sticker on the bottom of the drive?

That shouldnt affect the performance, usually its hiding a screw (viods warentee if it is damage because it could have been opened)

Is this machine a laptop or a desktop computer? (I see you have batteries listed in Device Manager, plus you mentioned "silver coils", of which there is nothing like this on a large bay desktop CDROM drive.) (See picture)

If it's a desktop, and it has a floppy drive;

Boot with a Win98SE Boot Disk* choosing "With CDROM Support" and check the drive(s) in MSDOS.

Insert a Windows CD into the drive(s) and at the A:\> prompt, type in dir/a/-p %cdrom%: (or dir/a/-p x: (where x: is the device letter assigned to the drive(s) during the boot process) and hit Enter. If you get a directory listing, the hardware aspect of the drive(s) is OK, and the problem lies within Windows.



*The above bootdisk image file is a self extracting file and has to be executed (run) from a running Windows machine in order to create the actual startup diskette on one of your floppy disks. (This image file produces the same bootdisk which 98SE creates.) This downloaded image file will format the floppy disk to ensure its integrity, write the files to the disk, then verify the file write, so it'll take a minute or three to create the bootdisk.

Ensure the floppy drive is set as the first boot device in the bios.

NOTE: When you boot a machine with this boot floppy, it creates a RAMDRIVE in system memory to contain DOS system tools/drivers. Thus it will move your "normal" CDROM device/drive letter "up" one level. (If your CDROM is normally E: it will be F: when booting with this bootdisk.)