<font color="cyan">My CD-ROM drive on my laptop has gone all dicky on me, it did it ages back, and fixed itself for 8 months all by itself, but now has gone again.

Basically, its not working.

It doesnt light up on startup, and will not eject. Its as if no power is being put to it...

I click on properties and it states the device is working perfectly, is there any way I can go through the system to find out whats wrong?</font>

Since it's a laptop, we'll pray that it's just software rot & not something physical, because playing around inside those things is not fun.

One sure bet, on a Windows system, is to uninstall & reinstall the device driver. That fixes a surprising amount of things, for some reason...

What you might also do, if you can, is to remove the drive and reseat it. That can sometimes clean things up. And while you've got it out, take a look at the connectors to make sure they're good and clean, and in good shape.

Uninstalling the critter is also a good idea (especially if you've got the device drivers). Remove the drive (again, if possible) and remove the drivers. Then let Windows find it again and reinstall it.

Have you searched the manufacturer's web site for support or FAQs? And one final thought, might it still be under warranty?

If so, you'd be golden -- just give it to the Helldesk guys & say, "Fix this."

I've a morbid fear of messing around inside laptops, ever since I destroyed my first one :(

Yeah, I had this same problem quite often when I had a laptop, my drives were in "Hotslots" so they could be removed easily and cleaned, and thats all it took to fix the problem.