A problem with HL-DT-ST DVD-RW GWA-4080N

I have this DVD+/-RW in my notebook, and a while ago it has stopped working properly. It recognizes every cd-dvd as audio and in device manager it reports itself with some garbled string i.e. "HH@T)SP DRD)RS CWA-0080J" (and sometimes other strings)

DVDInfoPRO reports many unchecked checkboxes on that page with capabilities, it shows that it's actually not a writer or a dvd-rom at all

Sometimes I manage to make it work (I don't know exactly how). In those situations, DVDInfoPRO shows a lot of checked checkboxes. Sometimes, it happens that it actually works for a while, but usually, as soon as I put a DVD in it, windows (XP pro) "deletes" it from the device manager and then finds a "CD-ROM" which in turn returns to a garbled string as above (maybe after a restart)

1. If it were a software problem, I'd be able to use a bootable cd (WHICH, when the drive is acting crazy, I CAN'T) - it seems that it doesn't work at all
2. If it were a hardware problem, then it wouldn't be possible for it to work SOMETIMES - which it does

Generally, I have a lot of experience with both hw and sw problems, but it seems that I can't solve this one.

So, if somebody has heard of this kind of thing, please help me with some advice.

I'm just still hoping that it's NOT a hardware failure (although it's still within the warranty period)

Thanks in advance

 

yes, i've done that a few dozen times, it restarts, finds a new hardware (CD-ROM) and then usually wants to restart again and then it becomes "HH@T)SP DRD)RS CWA-0080J" again

Once I even tried and deleted Dual IDE controller also, but when it restarted it found all the same things again

oh, yes, I tried to reinstall xp also (although not a clean install) and everything stayed the same

I want to try formatting the drive and start over but I can't boot anything since I don't have a floppy drive

I don't know how can I be absolutely sure that it's a hardware issue before I go to some service shop?

 

some more info:
the laptop is a HP Compaq nx9105 PG693EA (athlon 64 3000+, 512MB, 60GB)
it's 7 months old, I bought it NEW and in these 7 months, it has been used for less than hundred hours, the number of burned discs is less than five (everything is practically brand new)

 

it has the "NVIDIA nForce3 Go 150" chipset and a gForce4 440 and no, I haven't updated it from the original drivers that came with it

But can there be any reason for it to suddenly not work with those drivers even though it worked fine

btw, I don't see any new drivers on the HP site, well, there is a bios update but no chipset drivers

 

so, there IS a possibility that a software (win) problem is causing the drive to malfunction after the restart before loading win (not working with a bootable cd) ????

there are drivers on the nvidia site, but only for the nForce3 chipset (250), there's no mention of the nForce3 GO 150 (mobile) which I think is different.

I'm currently downloading all the drivers from the HP site so I'm going to try to reinstall them

I appreciate your (ongoing) help very much