Can't see cds & dvds

I am running a G4 1.25 dual boot quicksilver on 10.2.8. Suddenly OSX cannot see/recognise any dvd or cd I put in the machine. This has happened out of the blue. To eject the discs I am having to go into Toast.

What is wrong here?

Urgent help needed, please!

Cheers

Taxal

Have you tried booting from an install/restore cd? If the drive boots from the cd then you have an operating system problem.

Also, have you repaired permissions? …don't know if there can be a connection, but worth a try.

If it is an OS problem and repairing permissions doesn't help, try re-applying the 1.2.8 update.

Under Finder Preferences is CDs/DVDs and iPods checked?

If it "happened out of the blue" without you changing the "show desktop items" options, then you have other problems. If the CDs, DVDs option is deselected then you need to, at the minimum, repair permissions.

Solution

Hi, Thanks for the advice - I haven't been able to reply before.

I repaired the permissions but no joy. External hard drives, cf cards - none whould appear on the desktop - tearing my hair out.

Then my wife turns up and suggests switching everything off and unplugging everything and to wait.

When I switch back on - all works!

What happened here?