I have two devices:

HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE-8483B
and
Sony DVD-ROM DDU 1615

things have always worked fine until last night I go to download some songs for my daughter to our Itunes account and the drives don't even turn on or spin or anything.

I checked device manager and both have yellow exclamation points by them. When I check the properties for both, I get this message:

"windows successfully loaded the device driver for this hardware but cannot find the hardware device (Code 41)."

any suggestions? thanks.

Check your cables to the drives by unplugging the power cord, then removing the cables, and reinserting them. then restore the power cord.
Otherwise, the problem may be with your power supply.

ok. do you mean to open the casing and check the cables inside the computer, because these drives came on the computer when I bought it and there are no power cords other than the one main cord out of the back of the case for the entire computer. thanks.

Yes. If it has been shipped, there could have been enough vibration for some cable or connector to have shaken loose.

It is not rocket science... just be very careful to unplug each cable using the plug and your fingers... do not pull the cable, nor stress any of the cables....

As with anytime you have the cover off your computer, go easy and use a lot of patience... Best to do when you are rested and have nothing stressing you.

Device Manager errr Code 41, huh?

Check your cables but you should also try removing Windows' device driver filters on your CD/DVD drives. Are you running XP or Vista? (i need to know which to give the correct instructions)

Btw for examples of people with this exact same problem who (for in their case) solved it by removing the driver filters see here (it's just a few good examples for those who don't understand that filters can be a real problem. Your situation is just one that can result in a problem)

/* EDIT */
Even easier, see this MS KB for either XP or Vista. Note:
1) Reboot your computer after removing filters
2) After removing filters you may need to reinstall your CD/DVD burning/playing software and/or your itunes application - if you find it then has problems)

did you remove itunes or quicktime...i had that problem long time ago oh that error 41.

As a footnote re: specific to itunes

I've, in fact, found that iTunes actually installs a CD/DVD driver filter that i've seen has actually been cause of different problems. Specifically, it's driver file: GearASPIwdm.sys

So simply uninstalling/re-installing itunes might correct a problem if the GearASPIwdm.sys is, itself, the problem. But, in general, is good to remove all filters then reboot. Then reinstall your apps as need be if you then find the apps don't work (as they may need to reinstall a driver filter to work)

apple has the right instructions on how to remove-uninstall itunes,that i remember
without loosing drives.
and yeah also the filter fix works.