PC hardware forum: Computer doesn't recognize I have a disk in the DVD-RW drive

I have burned disks before and I haven't changed anything lately on my computer(Win XP) but just the other day I couldn't get it to know I put a blank disk in the drive...it kept claiming there was no disk

It is a Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-105

There is a related problem I had right out of the box with this computer...when I put a game into the AXV CD/DVD-ROM SCSI CdRom Device...it would not recognize the disk was inserted...I would have to keep clicking "try again" up to 12 times before it knew the game disk was already inside...this would happen also if I left the disk inside after I stopped playing and later came back to play again...it would forget the disk was still inside and I was back to clicking "try again" many times before it would work

The game then would work perfectly and I just put it down as a weird quirk(since it would eventually would work) and because I surely didn't want to take the computer back when I just got it

*sigh*

While I'm asking these questions I may as well tell you in the last couple of weeks the fan(not certain which one) is making an inordinate amount of noise...nothing seems to be overheating but is it possible all my problems are related? And what can I do about it?

I purchased the computer from Best Buy(7 months ago) and they say THEIR warrantee is only good for 14 days(they were VERY smug telling me I should of bought their extended warrantee)...however the manufactureers warantee is still good but this means I'd have to sent the whole tower in which at best would take over two weeks to get back...I REALLY do not want to do this

Do I have any other options?