vista dvd driver issue

i think that this is what is going on, but here goes:

recently, i was getting a pop and a stutter every second or so while playing games, so i reinstalled. good news is that the popping has gone, and everything was good, for a while. now, after installing some of my software back on, every time i put a cd/dvd into the dvd drive (have tried multiple drives, same thing happens), the disc doesn't even try to load, and if i try using explorer to access the drive, explorer crashes and i have to restart. the hardware seems perfectly fine (linux boots from a cd, the vista install dvd works perfectly etc etc), and all HDDs are working perfectly, and virtual drives are working (they use the same driver - cdrom.sys).

should add that this is an IDE drive, an NEC ND-3540A.

help me please.

 

bump

 

bump.....again

 

bump

 

bump
again

4 days with nothing, wow.

 

ok, still nothing. i am honestly quite shocked.

BUMP!