Whenever I insert a disk nothing happens exept for the usual noise in the cd rom drive. When I try to start it manualy nothing happens, sometimes a black window apears and imediately dissapears. thanks for your help in advance.

If you feel comfortable editing the registry, here are some steps:

Click the Start button, click Run. In the Open box, type regedit and then click OK.
Click the plus sign (+) next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
Click the plus sign (+) next to SYSTEM.
Click the plus sign (+) next to CurrentControlSet.
Click the plus sign (+) next to Control.
Click the plus sign (+) next to Class.
Click {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}.

Once here click File in the upper left corner and choose: Export (this key)
Export to your Documents as a backup. If needed you can go back to this file and Import it back.

Then:

On the right hand side of the window, click UpperFilters.
Click Edit on the menu bar.
Click Delete, and then click OK.
On the right-hand side of the window, click LowerFilters.
Click Edit on the menu bar.
Click Delete, and then click OK.
Click File, and then click Exit. Restart the computer normally


Also check UDMA/PIO settings under your IDE channel in the Device Manager.

If set to DMA try changing to PIO.

I didn't find UpperFilters or LowerFilters on {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}.
On Primary IDE Chanel Transfer Mode of Device 0 and Device 1 are set to DMA if Available. On Secondary IDE Chanel Device 0 is set to POI Only and Device 1 is set to DMA if Avalable wich ones should I change.

Your CD-ROM is most likely on the Secondary channel.

If you only have one optical drive it is most likely Device 0.

See if that will change to DMA.

I changed device 0 to DMA but it still doesn't work.

Is the drive old? Did it work recently?

Can you boot a CD?

Another quick try is go to the Device Manager and right click on this drive and Uninstall it. When you restart the computer XP will then reload the drivers for it.

It worked until about a month ago, I tried reinstalling windows and it couldn't boot from the CD

I uninstalled the drive, when I turned the computer back on it said that it had found new hardware but it still doesn't work

I'd try a new drive.

They are fairly inexpensive.

do you think that the actual drive is broken if so is there a way I could fix it, is it possible that it might be dirty. its hard to belive that it is broken because it was working fine about a month ago. at the beguinning you said something about UpperFilters and LowerFilters why couldn't I find those.

Those filters are added when you install some DVD/CD software. In many cases they conflict with XP and deleting them restores XP's CD function. If they were not there they were not added so should not be an issue.

They do make Disk cleaners which are disks you insert and they clean as they spin in there. Also you can clean the lenses with Q-tip and alcohol and perhaps a flashlight and magnifying glass. An octopus might help to hold everything.

If you want to test the drive you can also move it to another computer. Yet again these drives are less than $50 US for top of the line with many models under $20 US:

http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCateg...=CD-DVD-Drives