t reconises the drive on 'my computer' and ran the xp restore disc ?
- yes, but does it now? Are you confirming it is
still playing CDs?
The Google links will tell you that the CD drive can disappear after XP install. There are 'upper and lower filters' settings in the registry that seem to often go wrong. I have fixed 3 machines with 'them'. The motherboard drivers should be on the install disk from your manufacturer or on the recovery partition depending. What does the driver's handbook say?.
................and SP?