Thanks for your reply Bluedragon!Lets see here . . . going through your suggestions one at a time:1. I will have to have someone check the lense alignment, I did actually look at yanking it out but uh yeah, I didn't feel like pulling out the power supply and such to do so. When I put any disc in the light in the front flashes but I have just noticed a slight "clicking" noise like perhaps it's trying to work but can't? Discs won't even spin which has me wondering if it's perhaps the motor or the alignment as you suggested.2. It is a SATA connection - though the system recognises the device and says it is working properly.3. I only have one HDD's. 4. I did have a virtual drive installed, it has been removed for about 5 weeks now - nothing changed ><5. I have checked the registry edit - no lower or upper filters are there.6. It has been quite some time - i.e. 2-3 months at a stretch since it has worked, tried to restore when it started, to no avail.7. I reformatted after the restore was of no use - as it happened so was the restore.8. I called HP to have them look into it, from what the guy said they have been having a lot of cd/dvd drive issues (surprise me), if I can find the receipt from the comp they will even be so kind as to fix it (shame I moved countries again and can't find it, lol)My system is as follows:HP Pavillion Elite M9340f: Intel QUad Core Q6700 2.66 ghz / NVidia GeForce 9500GS / 1 x CD/DVD TSH6-53Q / 1 x 750g HDMy only periphials are A Razer Tarantula Keyboard, DeathAdder Mouse, Genius Tablet and HP Multifunction Printer.I've stripped it back to barebone software that I need - HP stuff that was installed at time of purchase, Office 2007 Suite Pro, Adobe CS3 Full Creative Suite, Safari, Firefox, Skype, Dvix Apps, Ventrilo . . . etc etc, all rather generic and legit software.If I left anything out please let me know! I gave a little TMI but I figured more was better CassieP.S. If you can give me a good link to the ubuntu/linux you suggested I will give it a go for sure.