Well, today I have been having the same problem with putting a disk into one of my drives (I have two internal burners and one usb external on this pc). I did a reboot and still the 2nd burner would not read any disks, so I did the bit of removing the cables in the back, powered down the pc. Then, when I powered back on, I uninstalled AnyDVD and CloneDVD, then shut down again. Then I reconnected with the same results .. that burner wouldn't read. My other internal burner and external burner would read, but not this one. So, I yanked it out and put in another burner and yup, it works fine. I hooked up the yanked out burner to a usb hook up and put it on another pc ... same results ... the thing just won't read a disk at all. So, I can only conclude that it is perhaps coincidence that others have been having with the latest update of AnyDVD since my other two burners work fine. The thing here is is that the software end of Windows will read that defunct burner is present, but on the hardware end, it didn't display at all (right click My Computer/Properties/Hardware/Device Manager/click + next to DVD/CD-ROM drives and see if the drive appears there). This is the third burner that has done this kind of thing and it seems to occur more often with the Lite-On 18A1P model.
So, first step in troubleshooting is to power off, disconnect the IDE cable and power cable on the back of the burner. Then, power back on. Uninstall AnyDVD and CloneDVD. Power off. Reconnect cables to burner. Power up again. Put a disk in the drive that wouldn't work and see if it will read. Turn off Internet modem, disable your Anti-virus, reinstall AnyDVD and CloneDVD (if you have it saved in a file, otherwise you'll have to get back online).
If it doesn't read, I suspect it is a faulty burner/reader. Or could be you need to replace the IDE cable. Or there could be something else amiss ... very likely hardware related.