Difficulty with Hp DVD 1040e External DVD Writer...

Hello everyone -

Due to an overly curious three year old and a bottle of glue, my optical drive is now officially shot. Since I still like to rip a CD for iTunes and I occasionally buy a Blu-Ray with a digital download, I still like to use my drive once in a while. I have an external DVD Reader/Writer (an hp DVD 1040e) that I've plugged in via USB, and yet, it doesn't read anything.

I'm running Snow Leopard, I've checked my System Profiler (it's listed under CD/DVD Burning, and it's recognized as an HP Device both there and under the USB list as well. Yet, when I put in any media, either blank or otherwise, it just spins around for a second, and spits it out. Is this a problem with the drive, or is there something further I need to do to ensure that it will mount DVD's or CDs like any other optical drive?

I've gone to the HP Website and found nothing, and hours of searching on Google have not been helpful. I'm hoping that some of the good folks here may be able to offer me some advice - it's driving me nuts!

Thanks!

Never mind.

Apparently, all it was, was a case of a little bit of dust in the DVD Drive. I blew some canned air in there, let it air out for a second, and voila. It works.

Thank God. I'm not crazy after all.