CD-Rom drive not running PC games

[hoboEddie]

I have Windows XP home edition running on a 2.4 gig athlon, 512 ram, and ATI Radeon 9700. My CD-Rom drives are a hp cd-writer 9500 series and a Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-M17121004. Until recently, whenever I installed a program and ran it, it worked. Now when I install a program, it works for the first time after I install it, but after that, it ceases to work. It doesn't matter if I click on the shortcut or the executable on the cd-rom or the executable for the program, nothing happens after I click on it. The only way to get it to work is to reinstall the program and than it only works on the first time I try it out. I know it's the CD-Rom drive because all of the programs and demo's that don't need a cd-rom work fine, also the autoplay feature works fine it's just the executable that's at fault. I hope we can solve this problem soon, thanks

[LooseChippings]

Do you get any error messages?

Does the CD Rom drive light flash to show the drive is reading the disk?

Can you hear the disk spinning?

Can you see the contents of the drive through explorer?

Are they pirated CD's?

Are you running up-to-date Anti Virus software?

Do you have problems with all types of cd roms?

[hoboEddie]

Do you get any error messages?

In a legit copy of Warcraft 3 that has worked fine for me in the past, I get a CD-ROM drive error. "Please verify that your Warcraft 3 disc is in your CD-ROM drive, then click on 'retry'" I know I just put it in, the autoplay works fine and so does Audio discs and video discs.

Does the CD Rom drive light flash to show the drive is reading the disk?

No it doesn't flash, it flashes whenever I click to eject a disc, or put in a disk, but it doesn't flash when the autoplay starts and it doesn't flash when I try to start up the program.

Can you hear the disk spinning?

I can hear it spinning when I first put in the disk and the autoplay starts, but after that, no.
Can you see the contents of the drive through explorer?

Yeah I can see the contents of all the drives when I start it up in Windows Explorer.

Are they pirated games?

No, although I did have a pirated Splinter Cell copy installed, I uninstalled it awhile ago but maybe those "no cd crack" threads have an effect?

Are you running up-to-date Anti Virus software?

Yeah, I don't think it would be a virus, all it is effecting is the programs that require a PC Game to run.

Do you have problems with any other types of cd roms?

I know audio discs work fine, and so does DVD on the DVD drive.

[LooseChippings]

If you are confident enough, open up the case, disconnect the IDE cable into the CD ROM Drives and then reconnect them.

Test the drives again (Don't put the cover on until they heve tested OK.

If this isn't the problem the only other suggestion I have is to get hold of a CD ROM cleaining kit and clean the innards of the drive.