OT- DVD drive trouble

[Randallw]

ok, today I got a bit of a late birthday present, An external DVD drive. Problem is I can't get it to work (oh it opens and closes but it doesn't register on my computer). I plugged it into a USB port but it registers as an unknown device and that it has malfunctioned. It doesn't appear to need a driver, claiming that it should be plug and play. I wonder somewhat if my computer says it doesn't need a driver because it can't tell what it is. I went through the troubleshooter and tried different USB ports (well the other one )

Although I don't believe it would be a problem my computer is about 2-3 years old, so I assume the USB ports are 2.0. I uninstall it in device manager and then scan for hardware changes which makes my computer claim there is a new usb device...for a few seconds before it says unknown, and it announces there is new hardware with the device manager entry having a yellow triangle/exclamation mark for a few seconds before going back to unknown. Is there something I should try or might it be possible it is faulty?. It is a Liteon SOHW-1693SX.