two pc dvd players suddenly fail to read dvd+rw media

[tyno2]

I have a self built pc desktop featuring one LG GCC 4480b and one MSI 8408a(DR8-A) dvd drives based on Abit N7 motherboard and Nvidia chipset. The machine and drives have worked faultlessly for some years on Windows 2000 os. Almost a year ago I upraded to XP os.Still no problems.
A couple of weeks ago both drives suddenly refused to read DVD+RW media. I have various manufacturers makes of DVD+RW which I found was the only reliable format for the MSI drive to burn.
I have since tested various media and find that the MSI will not read cd's of any format despite a firmware flash upgrade to improve that. But will read commercially produced(ie 2 layer) DVDs but not DVD+RW(produced by various applications-adobe photoshop-Intervideo DVD Copy2-Nero etc).
The LG 4480b reads everything but not DVD+RW media.
This is a sudden degradation and I think it unlikely that two different drives should simultaneously fail in this respect.
I've tried the MS fault finding test which failed to find an answer. Also disconnecting, rebooting and reconnecting drives without success.
Anyone any ideas? Short of a new machine. I'm currenlty out in Cyprus for the forseeable future and getting anything here is difficult.

 

[626F62]

i dont know the drives and i am sure you sound compitent enough but just to confirm the DVD's your writing to arnt DVD-RW and not DVD+RW are they??

or caues you say your now in Cyprus... did you get the discs from there? if so could it be a reigion thing??

i dont really know i am just stabbing in the dark...

 

[tyno2]

Definitely DVD+RW. Neither drive will read them and the MSI wont read or write to them. Region code remains the same, though Cyprus has the same region as previously so no luck there unfortunately. These are mainly DVDs with archived material I've created over a couple of years as well as new stuff I'm trying to create so I'm sure its something commonly affecting both drives to misbehave.