As far as troubleshooting is concerned, we now know that it's not
something wrong with the CD drive itself (of course I could've read
through your post with MikeM where you stated that... but that would've
been much too easy :/ )

Can you go into

ControlPanel/System/DeviceManager (View by Type)
and look through for a CD drive or something which says the model of the
CD (there's an actual category called CD, but if it isn't there, check
other ones like HardDrives and HD-Controllers)

No luck there, then try "View by Connection" and root around there for
the same thing listed under "IDE Controllers" (itself under "PCI Bus")


Rick