Call Compaq and say you're cd-rom drive is messed up. Don't tell them you installed Windows 2000, and pretend to go through all the troubleshooting steps. Get yourself a new drive and see if it works.

My in-laws have an old(ish) Compaq 900z notebook with an athlon mobile xp1500+. Problem is that the cd/dvd drive no longer reads disks. It really could use a reinstall due to some virus buggery.Is it ...