I recently had to do a complete system restore on my rig because of some worms let loose by my kids. Long story, but I completely wiped the harddrive, reformatted, and reinstalled WinXP Home along with all the original software, then updated everything through MS security update CD and MS Windows update. Then I installed Norton System Works along with all the updates for that, including AV definitions. Ran all checks, everything seemed fine. I also installed, updated and ran Spybot S&D 1.3 and AdAware 6.0. Found some manufacturers spyware and deleted that, but otherwise my system appears to be clean and error free.

Except for one thing. My DVD-ROM, a Pioneer DVD-116, will no longer recognize DVD''s. It will recognize and run Music CD''s, Photo CD''s and Data CD/R & CD/RW. But when I Insert a DVD it won''t recognize that a disc is in the drive. I ran the MS troubleshooter without success. The Device manager test says the device is working properly. I tried uninstalling the device and letting Plug-n-Play reinstall, but still no luck. I also tried manually starting the DVD from WMP and Intervideo WinDVD but still the same problem. I get a message asking me to Insert a DVD. It doesn''t matter which DVD disc I use either, having tried about 20 new DVD discs after checking to make sure they would read on another computer.

I went to Pioneer''s site to update the driver, but they have the same driver as I do as the newest version. I also ran System Mechanic 4.0i and all the Norton checks on windows and all reported nothing wrong. So I am completely stumped. The DVD worked perfectly before the restore, and works in every other way except for playing DVD''s now. The only other thing I can think of is possibly a bad codec or maybe a missing Activex control or something of that nature, but I''m not sure where or what to check. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance for reading this far and anything else you might suggest.

Brad aka Shameless
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