Error Code 39 on CD-RW drive

My LH-DT-ST CD-RW GCE 8481B drive has stopped working. Device Manger has a yellow ! against it. Device Status has "Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing." I've tried to unistall and re-install the device as per troubleshooting instructions but wind up back at the same place. I tried doing a search for driver updates through Device Manager Update button but Windows says mine is the best match and won't load another. Can't use the CD drive to load the driver from CD for obvious reasons. The original driver seems to be from Microsoft but I'm not having much luck finding it on their site. Sooo

Is this really a software driver problem or could it be hardware?
Where can I find the driver on-line (safely)?
Any gottchas to worry about during installation? (not that I know how to do this)
Use your best "for dummies" response language. Sadly, I'm no PC geek although was a mainframe geek in the "good old days"

 

5 minutes to sign up, 5 minutes to post my problem, 5 minutes to get a response and 5 minutes to fix it. Wow! Done and Done! Next time I'll come straight here and not spend hours trying to re-invent the wheel. Thanks very much!

 

What is a Filter Driver anyway?