Up until a few days ago, my DVD/CD-ROM drive was working fine on my laptop
pc. I could import retail audio cds to ITunes, burn blank audio cds, and
watch dvds on the computer (I don't have a DVD burner).  But suddenly
all audio cds stopped working.  When I put either a blank cd or a
retail audio cd in the driver, the computer just does not recognize
that it is there.  It makes a whirring noise for a few seconds, and
the light on the driver flashes, but that is basically it.  However, I
can still watch DVDs on the computer.  What do I do?

This isn't a solution to your problem, however...

... I had a very similar thing happen to my Dell computer DVD drive,
however the problem was reversed - my CD's all worked and burned
correctly, but any DVD I put in the drive to play or to burn was not
recognized.

In my case, a new burner was required - the technicians quickly
discovered it was NOT a software problem. The process by which they
determined this was to have me install the latest drivers for the
hardware, and then to uninstall all of my burning software and then
reinstall only ONE type of burning software. In my case that was Nero.
This was because apparently some softwares can conflict with one
another.

They also asked me if I had installed any new programs in the time
between the last time my burner worked correctly and the first time it
failed. They further suggested that I perform a system restore on my
computer to my last correct, working configuration but of course - the
decision to do that is up to you! Personally I didn't as sometimes
that can cause issues but... I was pretty convinced by that point that
the issue was hardware related.

Perhaps you can use some of these diagnostic suggestions to narrow
down whether your problem is hardware or software related, which is
your basic problem. From there - if it's software you'll just need to
fix the problem software - and if it's hardware, you may need to
invest in a new drive for the laptop.

I hope this helps!

~* Schylaar *~