Hi all, I have done everything suggested and every comibination of everything suggested above, including doing a system restore to a point before installing and dealing with the issues of DVDFab 5.0.2.0 as noted above. After having tried all of the above including a system restore to when the cd/dvd-drive was working, my system doesn't recognize the cd-rom drive at all now, under any circumstances. I've not even gotten to try my new LG external 'cause I've spent all this time on getting my system back to the point where my internal cd/dvd-drive works. I'd call Gateway support which would likely be a gruelling 2+ hours with questionable results, but since this problem didn't exist until changing the DVDFab Platinum settings, I doubt they'll be able to do much for me anyway.

I do know Windows always works better after a complete format of hard drive and reinstallation of Windows and all programs, and I'm sure that would fix the problem - but it takes SO long, and I really don't want to have to do that. (That's what I had to do the last time I had a problem this serious because Gateway support is virtually worthless.) Plus, I always end up losing precious files, not counting the tremendous amount of time involved, not the least of which is explaining to Microsoft why I need to reinstall Windows so I'm allowed to reinstall Windows - yet again!

Thanks,
Mamabird