both of my cd drives were working one day, then stopped the next. i'm getting nowhere with google. i really need a driver to use my cd drive. HELP!!!

Support Information:
Device Type: CD / DVD
Manufacturer: Dell Computer
Model: HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE-8483B
Interface: IDE
Operating System: Windows XP Home
Age of Device: < 2 years old
FCCID:

Type of drive: cd-rw, cd-rom (rewriter &amp; reader)
Location: internal
What recording software are you using?: Other (Other: Windows)

Find it on DriverGuide (http://members.driverguide.com/index.php?action=srch&sm=b&aax=&qa6=294&qa5=3&qa7=1500&dp=2&qm0=HL-DT-ST+CD-RW+GCE-8483B&jmd=and&fzz=d) | Find it with Google (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=Dell+Computer+CD+%2F+DVD++HL-DT-ST+CD-RW+GCE-8483B+Windows+XP+Home+) | Research manufacturer Dell Computer (http://members.driverguide.com/index.php?action=getinfo&companyid=294)

Optical drives never require a driver when used in any Windows os from Win95 up. Windows XP provides native support that allows this drive to read a data or music disk and to burn a cd-r disk. No support for playing dvd disks or for burning dvd disks. For that task, compatible recording & dvd decoding software is required. (along with a compatible drive)

If problem is non-detection by the os, read on....

Simple solution:

Situation
There is a yellow exclamation mark for CD/DVD drives in Device Manager. The device status in the properties of the driver might indicate an error code, for example 32, 37, or 39.

Solution

To solve the issue, you have to edit the Windows Registry:
Click Start, then Run, type REGEDT32 and click OK.
Locate and then remove the following registry values:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlCl ***{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}LowerFilters

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlCl ***{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}UpperFilters

http://common.packardbell.com/itemnr/topic_02125/topic_02125.gif

Close Registry Editor.
Reboot the system for the changes to take effect.

Note: Some programs are unable to detect the CD/DVD drive after these steps. To solve this, simply re-install the program in question, eg: usually your recording software. Also, in few instances the order in which the programs are (re-)installed can make a difference.

And here's another method that will do this automatically for you if you're afraid to edit the registry manually.

http://forums.driverguide.com/showthread.php?t=22131
(automatic fix, post #7, download file: CdGone.zip)