corrupt cd rom driver

On my Dell 2400 Dimension I have suddenly lost my CD Rom Drive.  Error message 41 appears. The drive does not appear on my computer.  I have replaced the cd rom with another good one.  The same error occurs.  I presume there is a software glitch but I cannot reload the driver or XP because the CD rom drive does not work.  Catch 22!  I downloaded the Samsung SW 252 driver from the Dell site but cant seem to be able to activate it.  I have been told that XP has a generic CD Rom DVD driver so I presume this is the bit that is corrupted.  Any help much appreciated