I went to burn a cd and it says my burner or software is not found

In my limited experience cd burning software isn't very stable and causes software conflicts with Windows; uninstalling doesn't help very much because burning software tends to displace some Windows components that sort of gets lost in the process.

If you really know what you are doing it might be possible to repair Windows but at my level I find formatting and reloading everything is the best option.

I find Nero to be the greatest offender.
Windows Media Player should be able to burn a cd; it might be long-winded but it is fairly reliable...

make sure the burner is getting consistant power check the leads attached make sure it has good secure connections and are dust free

you might have to physically unplug the leads for this cd/dvd then plug them back this should activate the found new hardware wizard or
you might have to uninstall then restart your computer then reinstall your DVD/CD then reinstall the driver for this device
if your computer came with a motherboard disk the drivers could be on it
click start control panel administrive tools computer management device manager scroll down cd dvdrom drives if you see a yellow question or exclamation mark? ! or a red x right click you will need to update the driver or
select properties general troubleshoot, select driver click to reinstall drivers click update driver

this might be because you have not selected the option to burn an certain type of cd/dvd ie:data ,audio ,iso or your burning software does not support the type of cd/dvd you are trying to burn
there are plenty of free burning software programs on the internet
hope this helps you
which burning software??

you can try nero,or alcohol software for cd burn
u can find these software for free on torrentz.com

If you are using Windows XP or Vista, you won't need any software to burn CD's. It's supported by the operating system.
You can use drag 'n drop.
I know of several computer companies who are not including specific software because you can burn without it. For more complicated jobs, you'll have to buy software.

Make sure the cd rom device can burn CDs if it can then reinstall the drive and burning software for the CD ROM

get on the computer manufacturers website and download the drivers for your dvd on there.

have you tried to reboot the laptop.
or unistall the utilty and install it again.

There are dozens of free perfect functioning  burning software. the one that i use is Totally Free Burner 3: as the name says it's free, extremely small ( just 1 MB compared to 100MB for Nero), fast and very easy to use. get it from here http://www.softpedia.com/get/CD-DVD-Tools/Audio-CD-DVD-Burning/Totally-Free-Burner.shtml

Reinstall the software, or restore to a date before the problem started. 

James, I have found in the past that many computer manufacturers only install a trial version of some software. One major manufacturer, who shall remain nameless custum built a P.C online that included a CD burner, but I found out later that even though they installed the burner, they provided no burning software. It sounds as though you have no CD burning software installed. First, from the start button, go to control panel, then to add remove software. A list will compile showing all software installed on your machine. If you do not have a CD, or DVD burning program installed and your computer came with no CD's( most today do not) that may contain that program, you will probably have to buy your own at this point. Just to clarify, do you only have a CD burner, or is it a CD burner/ DVD ROM, or do you have a DVD burner. If you have a DVD burner, then you are capable of burning both CD's and DVD's. If you need to purchase burning software I would suggest you do an internet search for Nero, This is the software that I use. It works well in addition to being easy to use.On the Nero site I have in the past purchased their OEM version, the OEM versions are usually available at very good prices. I prefer to purchase software online and have a disc mailed to me as opposed to downloading it online just so that I have a hard copy if I ever need it. If you are limited to burning CD's, just get the CD software. If the device you have installed in your computer is a DVD burner, then purchase the DVD software and you can burn on both formats.