How do I reinstall CD drivers?

[exbass94]

My CD burner for some reason will not burn. Trying to use Windows Media Player. It keeps saying "insert blank disc" even when there is a blank disc in there. I ran this diagnostic thing on Microsoft's webiste. It said my drive is not capable of burning. All of my Google-ing shows that I need to uninstall and reinstall the CD drivers, but I can't find out how to do it. Can someone give me a complete step-by-step how-to so computer-illiterate morons like me can follow?? I have Windows XP.

Did I mention I HATE computers??

 

[BlackBII]

Right click on My Computer, go to Properties
Go to the Device Manager on the Hardware tab
Find your CD drive in the list of Devices, Double click on it
Go to the Driver tab
Click the Uninstall button
Then, you can have Windows try to find the driver, or, you can download one from the manufactures website

 

[exbass94]

I have an LG GDR8163B DVD-ROM drive. I can't find drivers for it anywhere. LG's website doesn't recognize that model number at all.

I uninstalled the driver no problem. Windows said it needed to restart, so I let it restart. When it booted back up, it recognized the drive and apparently automatically reinstalled it. But I still have the same problem.

REALLY hate computers....

 

[BlackBII]

Sounds about right, that's what it should have done.

Open My Computer and right click on your CD drive and go to Properties.

Is there a Recording tab? And, how is the drive labeled when looking at it in My Computer?
DVD-R Drive? DVD Drive? DVD-RW Drive?

Edit**

I just looked up that part number on newegg.com and it doesnt look like it even has Writing (burning) capabilities ????

 

[exbass94]

It's labeled as a DVD-RW drive, there is a recording tab, and the "enable CD recording" box is checked. Still not working.

 

[BlackBII]

Ok, when you put in a blank disc, does the Auto-Run window come up after a minute or so, asking what you want to do with the disc?

And, once the disc is inserted, and you double click on the Drive in My Computer, what happens?

 

[exbass94]

Whoops it's actually a GWA4164B. I have 2 drives on this computer. One is only a reader, the other is a reader/writer.

 

[exbass94]

The auto-run doesn't come up. If I double-click on the drive, I get this:

 

[BlackBII]

Ok, what happens if you drag and drop a file into that window?

 

[exbass94]

Drag a file into that window:

click on "write these files to CD:"

 

[BlackBII]

Hmm...

Definitely something wrong here.

Has this drive worked for you before? Have another machine you can try that drive in?

 

[exbass94]

The drive definitely used to work and I used to burn CDs all the time. This is basically my mother's computer and she wouldn't want me disassembling it so I don't think I'm going to. I'll probably just use my uncle's computer to burn these discs next time I'm at his house.

 

[BlackBII]

I did a search for that model number and found a number of sites with a driver available for download.

Did you try any of them?

 

[exbass94]

Yup just downloaded a new driver, restarted computer, it automatically installed it, and....same problem. **** it, I really lost all patience with this. If I don't give up now, this computer is gonna end up in 100 different broken pieces. Thanks for your help, I really appreciate your patience.

 

[superdave1984]

Get a new drive. They aren't that expensive and are easy to swap. I doubt it is a software/driver problem.