Vista - Vista Drivers Won't read any discs...

Ok so i've had this problem for a month or so and im fed' up with it..
When i put in a disc into the cd/dvd (combo drive on my vista 32-bit laptop) It just says "please insert a disc" and ejects the drive that has a disc in it already...
I've tried updating everything on my computer i've gone through the registry and fixed some things., and i've uninstalled my drivers then restarted my computer...
And....yet it still won't work

Combined from searching for fixes and trying them i have at least 7 hours into looking for a fix for this problem...

Thanks in advance! hopefully you guys can figure this problem out.....

*EDIT* It is a vista problem i bought one of those external hard drives and it had the same problem so you could say i'm thoroughly confused...
Thanks for the help whs but i forgot but i already tried that today and it wasn't doing anything just causeing more problems than solutions

Try this: ( Your CD drive or DVD drive is missing or is not recognized by Windows or other programs ). Maybe it helps. No guarantee though.

I have the same issue with my HP desktop. Looking in Device Manager, I receive no 'exclamation point of death'. The drive is recognized and has a Microsoft driver installed. I've done the uninstall function with no success. I've tried starting my comp with no other programs running during start up by changing my system configuration. And lastly, I've checked to remove the upper and lower filters in the registry. Nothing to this point has worked.

The comp is an HP Pavilion m9340f that I purchased last fall with Vista Home Premium (64x). The drive reads, writes and plays all other media types and the Lightscribe function works flawlessly. It just simply doesn't play dvd's anymore.

Any ideas??

Many thanks,
GK

Is the dvd drive recognized with a disc in it in vlc?

Im thinking its to do with your region settings. check it out. what region is your disc from and what region is the dvd set to???

Thanks for the input gents. I tried the fix-it tool before, but forgot to note it. Region setting is '1' which is US. Dvd's US too.

Might be time to just restore the system from scratch and put updates in one at a time until I come across the one that caused this issue, then uninstall it.

Sad thing is, I don't use the dvd function often. The last time I dropped one in the tray was 6 months ago which played fine. Fast forward 6 months and countless automatic updates later and it doesn't work....hmmmmm.


GK-

are these dvd movies, or dvd file discs? if it is dvd movies you probably need a codec. but I think you have probably already worked that one out ffdshow is good for that.
That really stumps me. Have you tried to go to the manufacturer website for the cd/dvd writer, and have a go at them yet, perhaps if you went to their FAQ's or even updated your firmware for it, it might help?

Use this to diagnose problem:Your CD or DVD drive cannot read or write media