My BD rom will no longer recognize DVDs or CDS, but plays blurays

I also have gateway NV78 and I am having the same problem., but never down loaded from Itunes. Most of my down loading is Mods for The Elder Scrolls III, IV, and V. and Games from Steam.

Steam was not working properly and a big hassle tried uninstalling it and couldnt get all of it to uninstall ..got mad and deleted the rest.  Then my hard drive went had Best Buy replace it, but the optiarc cd rom  stopped working a little while after down loading a beta mod and removing steam. I dont no why Best Buy did not fix it. I live 40 miles from town and don't drive.. so i just had my son drop it off to fix hard drive and pick up a external hp rm475e.  I have all the cds for my games but the Hp only reads morrowind. Oblivion and Skyrim it just keeps saying insert disk.,, the disk spins then slows down the repeats this over and over again

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I finally download steam and reinstalled hoping it word correct it self, for i am not very computer smart like you guys. Also downloaded EScrolls IV and V. they are working ok.,,but when I insert skyrim which has Steam built right in to game annd click add game and search drive E it says insert disk.

I was going through my Oblivion.ini it said searching for cd rom cant find cd rom . but said found archive of old oblivion cd.

I have just given up cant afford another 300.00 @ Best Buy.,,until I saw your post w/same computer and same problem. Oh also I have multi system like 32 & 64 bit & all kinds of windows versions. xp 2003 2008, Vista & Os etc. Hope you get a solution response so I can do try it to.  SOMEOE PLEASE HAVE ANSWER.

I am having a similar problem. I have an HP pavilion dv6 running Windows Home Premium with an hp BDDVDRW CT40N. I have never had any problems with the optical drive.  About 2s week ago I started ripping some audio CD's to my hard drive using Windows Media Player.  I ripped about 15 CD's over the course of 2 weeks. Then all of a sudden the drive would not read audio CD's - I put a CD in and nothing, even after hours; if I click the drive it ejects and responds please inset disk.

So I thought it was the CD and inserted other CD's, even ones I had just ripped - nothing.  But it reads DVD's just fine; I just finished backing up a DVD with it.

The machine is about 5 years old but is running fine, so I thought it was maybe the drive.  I have another computer; this one only a little more than a year old with an HL-DT-ST BDDVDRW CT40N and running Windows 10.  I started ripping CD's with that computer also using Windows Media Player.  Guess what - same thing.  I was able to rip only 3 CD's before it showed the same symptoms: can't see CD's; no problem with DVD's.

I doubt immensely that two different computers with different operating symptoms and drives different would experience the same unusual hardware problem within a few days after running the same software.  It has to be something about using ripping software that blocks out CD's.

I am only moderately tech savvy, but have been successful, sometimes after considerable effort, at most anything I've tried.  I've had no success with this(even going back to a restor point before problems) and am at a complete loss.  Please Help.

It is by coincidence that the DVD / CD "laser" is no longer working.  Since you have tried Safe Mode, it seems to be a "hardware" problem.

The Drive only reads bluray in safe mode also.  I am attempting to gain access to a computer to create a boot disk (good idea)...  Are the windows 7 " system repair discs" boot disks?  I do have one created and that is not recognized upon start up. 

I just have a hard time believing that the laser or sensor went out at the exact moment I was using MAC software to burn for the first time.  Itunes support site does state that problems like this occur, their solution was to delete the upper and lower filters, which i did, to no avail.

Can you boot from a bootable CD - like a Ultimate Windows Boot CD or Ubuntu Live CD

(Quick way to eliminate the 'lasers' being the issue - at least the CD laser.)

You could even make a bootable DVD to verify that laser is working.

Admittedly - you need a working burner on some machine to make either.

Another option...

Make a bootable USB drive(USB thumb drive/USB key/USB Flash drive) with Ubuntu and boot to it and try to read CD's and DVDs once you get booted to the LiveCD - don't install it... (*grin*)  If it works - then you know there is a software issue in Windows.

Might also try Windows 7 in Safe Mode - can you read the contents of CDs and DVDs there?