I tryed a DVD Disk for the first time from a computer magazine and neither of my LG DVD 16x/48x DVDDrives will read the disk on either computer. I'm just figuring that theres summin wrong with the disc.
Also my cousin had the strangest problem that all of a sudden he cant use his 12x Creative DVDDrive to read any type of CD just DVD's, very strange.

You need to first find out if XP sees your drive. Right click on the My Computer icon. Click on Properties. Then, click on Device Manager button, choose the Hardware Tab. Click on the (+) next to CD\DVD devices. See if Windows is seeing the drive properly.
 
When you installed XP did you clean install it or did you install it over W2K? Drivers that work for one may not work for the other and may even fool an install if it is an upgrade rather than a clean install.
 
What kind of Video card to you have? Did it come with DVD software?
 
You said you are using PowerDVD, are you sure that it is configured to read the DVD drive in case the drive has changed from D: to E: or something? Is this the patched version that works with XP? http://www.gocyberlink.com/english/products/product_main.jsp?ProdId=28

XP can see my drive fine, I can read regular cd's just fine, its just when i put a dvd in that it cant read the disc. Powerdvd is all updated for the newest version and Yes I did a clean install. I can play an mpeg movie off a regular cdr in the dvd drive through powerdvd.

Quote:
I'm running Win XP Pro version 2002 with every update from the microsoft page and I tried using windvd and powerdvd (newest versions)

I have experienced this problem as well. Every thing was working fine, until I downloaded all the MS updates.
The DVD rom still reads all CD media, but hangs on DVD’s.

Hmmm... Didn't M$ recently publish an update to try and solve a problem with a particular DVD (Snow White and the Seven Dwarves IIRC)? Maybe thats having an unwanted side effect...
 
Another thing, do PC DVD-ROM drives use mechanisms that utilise single- or dual-laser pickups? In the latter case it's quite possible that your DVD laser is fuct but the CD one is fine but thats probably a long shot...

It might be that it is not recognizing the regional code then. Look in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ System\ CurrentControlSet\ Control\ Class\ <CDROM GUID>\ <instance number>\ DefaultDVDRegion (binary) to see if the registry is set correctly.

Sampson, I dont have that reg key in my registery at that location I've got it at:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\IDE\CdRomMATSHITA_DVD-ROM_SR-8582________________0ACA____\5&35bcaee8&0&0.0.0\Device Parameters
 
then for DefaultDvdRegion which is a REG_DWORD I have 0x00000001 (1) under Data
 
this key also shows up under:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\SCSI\CdRom&Ven_PLEXTOR&Prod_CD-R___PX-W124TS&Rev_1.06\4&3321b42e&0&030\Device Parameters
 
and:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\SCSI\CdRom&Ven_TOSHIBA&Prod_CD-ROM_XM-6201TA&Rev_1030\4&3321b42e&0&040\Device Parameters
 
for my scsi toshiba cdrom and my scsi plextor cd writer.
 
 
also under my dvd drive properties / dvd region tab Its set to region 1 so I guess that's not the problem but who knows... maybe it is the dvd laser or something, guess I can just try putting it in a friends win2k computer or something

I would definitely check the drive in another machine but after reading through your symptoms again it definitely sounds like your DVD laser has given up the ghost. Seeing as it's necessary to have dual pickups in order to read CD-Rs (which is why some standalone DVD players can't read them while others can) I can't see many PC DVD drives having only single pickups.
 
And Marktait, your cousin probably has the reverse problem: His CD pickup has **** itself so he can only read DVD media and not CDs.