CD/DVD drive non responsive

Question

Hi, I'm having, what seems to be a very common problem, with my cd/dvd rw drive that came as standard with my hp pavilion elite desktop pc, albeit with a slight twist in comparison with others here.
My dvd drive has functioned perfectly since i bought the system just over 5 months ago, today, for the first time i tried to burn a media dvd using windows dvd maker. half way through burning the disk the process stalled with an error message claiming the disk was corrupted and to insert another, healthy disk into the drive to continue burning, i chose to cancel the burning process thinking its was the windows dvd maker program. The disks are of high quality, not the cheap kind and i assumed micros**t was to blame. I thought little of it, these things happen but immediately afterwards I went to use the drive for its other intended purposes and it will not recognise any disks within the drive. Regardless of media or disk type.
I've run through a dozen suggested fixes here and on other forum boards with no success, the PC recognises that the drive is there, both in the main system folder (my computer) in the device manager and in the bios. It doesn't seem to have lost the drive, it just isnt functioning. I've tried clearing the filters (appears i didnt have any) driver re-install with a clean reboot with no luck, I've also opened the case and done the wire juggle which unsurprisingly, didn't help. The drive drawer functions fine, the drive just doesnt read any disk i place inside of it.
I place a cd/dvd in the drive and nothing happens. When i try to manually access the drive from my computer the dvd drawer ejects and i get a pop-up asking me to insert a disk, despite the fact there is already a disk inside. I've tried multiple dvds and cds and it does the same thing for each, nor can I get programs such as itunes or WMP to read from the drive, they all show the drive as being empty??
I tried the hp diagnostic thing too but i couldn't get the program to test the drive properly on account it depended on the drive being able to read a disk from within the drive, which it stubbornly refuses to do, so i cant tell if the problem is hardware or software based? anyone had anything similar and if so were you able to repair the problem? Im at my wits end and quite frankly I'm disappointed, I've had compaq presarios and hp pavilions before and they've all been solid platforms but having such a problem after only 5 months has seriously damaged my opinion of hp.
I should probably mention I've also tried using windows (of the colour 7) to diagnose the problem from the device's properties menu but windows is about as observant as an amnesiac chicken and repeatedly tells me the device is fine and dandy, go figure
Erm apologies about the obscene length and labyrinthine, rambling nature of the post by the way... heh
ANother edit, i should also mention i've tried the 8 step guide by raster blaster, with no success, alot of the steps don't seem to allow for a recognised drive that doesn't recognise a valid disk within it, if that makes sense. Even the windows diagnostic is skuppered before it can get going because it's convinced the drive is empty or the disk is incompatible regardless of how many disks i've tried in it.
OS: WIn7 64bit
DVDrw: AD-7251H5
Desktop: HP Pavilion Elite 340-uk
Driver Version: 6.1.7600.16385

Answer 1

hi big_dave, thanx for the assistance,
device driver re-install was one of the first things i tried and while it re-installs the drivers on start up, the problem persists. I also took your advice and tried to search for a firmware update, but couldnt find one for my drive, so im assuming (possibly incorrectly hehe) that my firmware is up-to-date.
Just to clarify, the drive is recognised by windows and in the bios, I've tried using a command prompt from outside of windows and it recognises the drive but will not read any disks within it, i recieve the drive is not ready message, I've tried a driver re-install followed by a clean reboot. I've also tried the inbuilt win7 troubleshooter program but because the drive will not read from any disk i place into it, the troubleshooter doesn't even get anywhere, the tray ejects the disk and the trouble shooter just keeps telling me to insert a disk of a valid type, i've tried some dozen or so disks... sigh... I tried a system restore but then that didn't work and i also tried the hp diagnostic tool but i have a similar problem as with the win7 troubleshooter, the program attempts to run it's diagnostics but before it even gets anywhere the disk is ejected and the program tells me to insert a valid disk regadless of the fact i have tried numerous disks that correspond with the particular aspect of the drive im testing eg audio disks to test audio cd playback capability etc etc. I even opened the tower and tried disconnecting the drive at both the drive itself and the motherboard with no success. I haven't yet tried the CMOS switch thing but im not entirely sure what that is or what it does or if it would even help me (or make matters worse! lol)
As I say my drivers and firmware seem up-to-date, i've done a full system scan for viruses and and i've checked the drive for any visible physical damage (for what that was worth) and could find none and the registry file contained no filters to delete, it was clean.
Looking at this list im guessing my best bet is to replace the drive? A sore disappointment for such a recent purchase and if i thought it wouldn't take forever and a day to get a replacement from hp themselves i'd go about it.
I cant help but feel angry that hp clearly has made so little effort to correct software and hardware issues with their products, not to mention the use of substandard parts in their machines, sure a dvd rw drive is pretty cheap to replace and takes little fuss to install but it makes me wonder what might fail next that wont be so cheap and convenient to replace.
Still thnx for the advice Big_dave and good luck to anyone else having problems with hp dvd drives, may you meet with more success than I.