Hi, I recently had to instal XP pro after formatting the hard disk with xp home on it. This was because the backup disks i made just after buying the machine didnt work. I have as a consequence lost the use of my dvdrw, tv card, cdrw etc....I downloaded the software for my soundcard no problem but thats it. Have tried HP support (and i use that word loosely) but still cannot use the dvdrw or other bits.
Help...please!!!!!!!

What was the exact HP make and model?

If you installed a different XP operating system from what HP supplied this might be problematic as HP drivers for the motherboard are most likely proprietary.

XP requires no drivers for optical drives outside of its own. Perhaps the IDE drivers are not there. Perhaps we can ID the motherboard but again it is most likely proprietary.