I upgraded from Windows 98 to XP. When attempting to install my HP CD Writer drivers from the provided CD a message appears advising that the devices or applications are disabled and that Windows is preventing these drivers from loading. I have tried to load the latest drivers from the HP website. However, they also will not load as, apparently, the disabled driver interferes with the newer drivers. What can I do?

If your diagnosis is correct (that the disabled driver is interfering with the newer driver which you have installed), then the problem should be solved by simply uninstalling the other driver. The simplest method will probably be to remove both and then reinstall the required driver. To do this, go to the ‘Start’ menu > ‘Control Panel’. In the control panel, switch to ‘Classic View’ and then double-click to open the ‘System’ control panel. In the window that appears, click the ‘Hardware’ tab. On this tab, click the ‘Device Manager’ button. Expand ‘DVD/CD-ROM Drives’. Under this, you should see two instances of your CD Writer. Right-click on the instance with the older drivers and click ‘Uninstall’. However, you may not be able to distinguish between the two instances as to which one has the older drivers and which has the newer drivers. In this case, arbitrarily select one of them, uninstall that device, and then right-click on the other remaining CD Writer instance and click ‘Update Driver’ and follow the wizard to install the latest drivers. Be aware that Windows may not be able to automatically find the drivers. In the wizard you may need to select ‘Install from a list or specific location (Advanced)’ and specify the location of your drivers. If you are still having problems after trying this procedure, please contact me again with more specific information on the model of your CD Writer.