I have a Hp Pavilion running windows ME. The Cd rom is only recognizing certain cd's. I can put certain cdrw's with files on them in the drive and it will read them fine. But I can put other (same brand and type) cdrw's in there and it will tell me the drive is empty. It will not read the factory included recovery disk or other cds. It will tell me the drive is empty. I have been able to go and have the computer boot from cd first and it seems that it reads the recovery disk fine. But when I let windows load and try to open the cd then it tells me drive empty. Program manager tells me the drive is working fine. I have gone in and deleted the drivers and rebooted to have it relocate the drivers. It found them fine but the problem is still there. I would appreciate any help. The computer is used as a stand alone never used on the internet.

A couple of thoughts:

1. Uninstall the drivers again, but this time don't let Windows simply reload the existing drivers it finds. Download a fresh driver load and install that instead.

2. It may be hardware problem instead:

- dirt on the lenses
- tracking mechanism getting out of alignment
- controller electronics starting to fail