HP Pavilion DV5000 DVD/CD drive not working

More likely the drive is broken (wore out).
Buying exact replacement can be expensive but you may try EBay or
You can get USB or IEEE1394 (fire wire) external drive for under $100.

Dear Sigma 101,

I am working on an HP Pavilion dv5000 right know and let me tell you that I had the same problem. When I first got this laptop, the owner told me that it has some virus on it and Yes, the CD/DVD combo drive was gone!. So, the steps that you might want to consider is to go back with System Restore (Star,All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and then System Restore) then, select Restart my computer to an earlier time and, Click Next and your system will show you a calendar, select the date available or click < to descend and click Next (for instance in my PC shows on the left December 15 of last year and then on the right the exact time as last good configuration) This option will only work if you have a previous back up or restoration point applied in the past .
Might sure that you save all of your files before you do this and good luck.

Ciao