Help--DVDRW

I think this should be in the hardware forum? Need advise.

In trying to optimise and protect my new PC, it seems that my dvdrw is not able to read any of the CDs (be it installation cd or any others). There's still light blinking initially when I put in the CD but it stops pretty soon even though some noise can still be heard. There is nothing on my LCD screen at all to indicate that a CD has been inserted.

What must I do to determine whether its some software fault that I have accidentally installed in my computer versus the dvdrw drive spoilt? The CDs are ok.

I can only think of 2 things that could have potentially cause this besides the DVDRW being spoilt ie ;
I have installed 'tweakui' and disabled 'unplug n pray'. However, even afer uninstalling tweakui (before uninstalling I ensured that the dvdrw drive was not on this) and enabling 'unplug n pray', nothing can be read from my dvdrw. I've even restarted my computer a few times and not successful. Appreciate any advise. I have not installed a lot of things yet from my CD to my HDD thus, really need some help here. Thanks.

PS: sorry for the earlier posting in the software forum but I didn't see any button where I could delete the thread in the software forum.