DVD drive not detected in HP dv8000t

I have a relatively new HP dv8000t laptop. For some reason, one day
Windows XP Media Center Edition decided that it would no longer detect
the DVD drive. The drive will not show in Device Manager, nor, of
course, Explorer.

If I reboot enough times, the DVD drive will manage to appear
eventually. But it's gone upon the next reboot.

The hardware is fine. The drive can be booted from, and it works fine
when used in DOS.

I've tried different drivers for the IDE controller. I've tried
removing and redetecting the IDE controller in Device Manager. It never
works. There are no UpperFilters/LowerFilters registry keys that could
be causing the problem.

I have no USB hardware plugged in at all.

I'd do a repair install of Windows, but when I try, I get errors--I
guess the CD they provided me with is limited in some way.

I'm at a complete loss.

null wrote:

I have a relatively new HP dv8000t laptop. For some reason, one day
Windows XP Media Center Edition decided that it would no longer detect
the DVD drive. The drive will not show in Device Manager, nor, of
course, Explorer.

I forgot to mention that I've tried a couple of the REG file "fixes"
that people typically recommend when this problem occurs, but it didn't
help. And screwing with the BIOS won't help either.

null wrote:

I have a relatively new HP dv8000t laptop. For some reason, one day
Windows XP Media Center Edition decided that it would no longer detect
the DVD drive. The drive will not show in Device Manager, nor, of
course, Explorer.

Wow, what to do with all the replies? Gee, thanks. I reinstalled WinXP
from scratch, because I had 16 hours I didn't know what to do with.
Sitting on a grenade would've been a lesser pain in the ass.