I couldn't find a 'not getting help and it's been 3 days' thread here, so forgive me for starting this topic. I posted my problem on the 15th. Here it is again:
DVD drive and USB ports not working
Last week I completely restored my system back to factory settings. Today, I was backing up all of my DVDs and not having any troubles. Then, for some reason, my DVD drive stopped reading any DVD that I put into it. I can't open it in My Computer, can't play with WMP (or any other player), and Nero 7 doesn't recognize a disc in there. I restarted my computer - nothing. I opened the tower to see if either of the cables had somehow worked loose - nothing. Upon restarting, I now notice that on top of the drive not working, 3 of the 4 USB ports on the back of my tower are not working.

Ideas?

Thanks

REVISION: I'm not having the USB port problem anymore. They just started working again. Weird.

http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/Waiting-Room-f100.html
This is the waiting room link I think you were looking for...

Anyway, this does sound weird... If the USB ports are working, then who knows what that was?

For your DVD drive, have you checked if the drive is still installed using the "Device Manager"? If it is, are there any checkmarks next to it (question mark or exclamation mark)?

I'm just wondering what Power Supply you have in your computer? I don't know why, but I just thought maybe it's not a very good one and may be your problem.

Well I checked the drive in device manager - nothing out of the ordinary. In the device's properties, it says that it is working properly. As far as my power supply, I'm not sure.

Maybe you could try uninstalling it from the device manager, rebooting your computer and it should run the "add new hardware wizard" and install it for you again. See if that helps.