servicee

First you couldn't have updated the driver as the only drivers are the default built in Windows/Microsoft drivers.  You probably did a Firmware upgrade to the drive.  

What is the status of the drive in the Device Manager?  Does it show an error code or that it's Working OK?

How did you uninstall/reinstall?  Did you uninstall it in the device manager then restart the PC and let Windows discover the drive when Windows started and reinstall?  If not, give that a try.

Yeah, I upgraded the firmware on Dell Support site. I basically uninstalled and installed in the device manager and restarted my PC then upgraded the firmware and restart the pc. There's no error code or anything, the drive is there in "my computer" but whatever disc I threw at it, it doesn't recognize. It worked fine until last week. I didn't install any new software except for replacing my new graphic card which was burned.

Can you access or display the data on a disc using the Windows Explorer?  If that works, maybe it's just the autoplay has been disabled for the drive?

When you uninstall in the Device Manager you must restart the PC and let Windows reinstall it.  I don't see, from your post, that you did that.

Yeah, I did wait until Windows completely re-installed the driver, I then upgraded the firmware and restarted it again. Everything seems to be fine, icon shows up in my computer, driver up to date...but it just won't play any disc. Whatever disc I put into the drive, I can't see it in my computer. I tried to use windows explore to open it then the drive would eject and tell me to "insert a disc". Really frustrating.

Thank you for helping out.

Run the Dell Diagnostics on the drive.  The Diagnostics should be on your hard drive.  Press F12 at startup while the blue Dell is on the screen.  This will take you to the boot menu where the Utility Partition or Diagnostics will be a choice.  Run the Custom Test for the drive and have a data CD or DVD (not music CD or movie DVD) in the drive for the read test.

I just ran the Diagnostics test and custom test in the Utility Partition and all tests are passed. Does that mean it's the firmware issue and not hardware? Thanks again for all the helps

It still suggests a corruption in the status of the drive between Windows and the drive.  It apparently didn't work before you did the firmware upgrade so that is not the issue.  Windows is apparently seeing the drive, it's just that it's not reading any data from it.  

Try another uninstall in the Device Manager, then restart the PC and wait until Windows starts and detects and reinstalls the drive.  RIGHT click the entry for the drive to Highlight it and then LEFT click "Uninstall".  Do not check the box to also uninstall the driver.

I hate to ask such an ignorant question but do you mean to right click the entry in "my computer" the CD drive icon? or the entry bubble on the lower right hand corner indicates that windows is installing the driver after I uninstalled and  restarted the pc? I tried both but I can't seem to see the "uninstall" option on a left click or maybe because I am always a step behind window self installing.

You have to go to the Device Manager.  Hold the Windows key down and press the Pause/Break key.  The panel that comes up will allow you to access the Device Manager.  Or RIGHT click on Computer (or My Computer)  and one option in the panel that comes up will be the Device Manager. 

Apparently you haven't uninstalled it in the Device Manager so give this a try.