Have been playing a game in which I need to use the cd. Was working fine last night, but this morning I got the IO device error.
Checked the properties (I think the right one)and showed the device was working properly. Checked for an update, but showed I didn't need one.

Running Win XP

You can try removing the CD drive from Device Manager, rebooting, and letting Windows redetect the CD drive. That might fix a software problem.

If you don't know how get to Device Manager, ***this site*** has links for three different ways to do it in XP.

If letting XP redetect the CD drive doesn't help, check whether all CD's are causing the problem. It may be that your CD drive is failing.

Thanks Jenny; not sure what I did, but it started working. Will wait and see if it malfunctions tomorrow. If it does, I'll try removing and redetecting.