Dvd not working/Cd drive will work

It's not the drive. There are two ways to solve this, one is to do the procedure below. The second one is to do a repair install of the operating system, which does not erase your files. The directions to do the repair are posted in this forum, sixth post from the top. SEE: "repair installation of XP"

left click start in the lower left hand of the screen
left click run
type regedit
left click OK
Now the registry editor will come up
double left click on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
double left click on SYSTEM
double left click on CurrentControlSet
double left click on Control
double left click on Class
double left click on {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
look on the right side of the window for upper filters
right click on upper filters
left click delete
windows will then ask you to confirm deletion
click yes
look on the right side of the window for lower filters
if you do not see lower filters, you may be out of luck on this one.
right click on lower filters
left click on delete
windows will then ask to confirm deletion
click yes
Close all the windows that are open
restart the computer

The registry edit shown above, is for when CD/DVD drives are missing. A windows repair isn't a cure-all solution for everything, as you seem to suggest.

@wallyworld
First, make sure your optical drive is capable of playing CDs and DVDs.
Then, make sure you have the software to play them (XP doesn't have DVD support). For that you'll need to download something like VLC media player.
If you're still having problems, make sure the discs aren't scratched or smudged. You may need to clean the discs.

If none of those suggestions help, try running this Fixit scan.
http://support.microsoft.com/mats/cd_dvd_drive_problems...