I am having this problem with my Dell Inspiron 530 repeatedly.  The CD/DVD drive periodically is not being recognized by my machine.   I have had this computer since October 2007 and this condition has reoccurred several times.  I call Dell Support and while on line they have made some file deletions that they did not explain except by saying, ”if they told me how to fix it I could mess up something else and my computer would not start up again.  And, I’d have to call them back each time this happens.”  I understand by talking to a vendor that services MS Vista that there is a patch available to fix this.  But they would charge me $XX per hour beyond a minimum fee to make the patch.  I am still within the warrantee period and it doesn’t seem fair that I have to pay another vendor for a service that I should get from Dell or Microsoft.  I’d like a permanent fix. 

The indication on my Device Manager has the following under, DVD/CD-ROM drives…..….. (DVD CD icon shows a yellow exclamation point !) My device is described as: HL-DT-ST DVD=-RW GSA-H73 ATA Device The error message on the drive properties says,“This device cannot start. (Code 10)” 

My question is how do I get access to this patch if it exists?  Dell Support seems to be pretty useless because they can’t make a permanent fix.  I really do not look foward to spending one to one-and-a-half hours on the phone or on line with them each time this happens. They have been successful in correcting the problem, but it reoccurs, typically when I run a MS update.  But, most recently I have put off updates but have discovered the condition returns.