Music CDs hang me up

[Guest]

On my writer drive (D) and my reader drive (E), I am able to successfully
play software and CD-R's with photos burned on other people's machines.
However, if I go to play a commercially recorded CD, or even put a blank CD-R
in D, the XP hangs up within 2-3 seconds. I've adjusted D's speed properties
from 52X to 4X, and removed the drive and controller. They successfully
re-installed when XP came back up, did another restart, but the problem
persists. I read a suggestion to defrag D, but my MS defragger does not give
me an option to defrag D or E (which would seem to make sense to me), so just
for kicks I did defrag C. Lastly, Windows Explorer tells me D (with nothing
in it) is 100% used space (not sure if that's the way it's supposed to be).
AHHHHHHH! and TIA

 

[Mike Williams [Thin Ice]]

If D & E are optical drives, then defragmenting would not really make sense
at all as files are not laid out in the same way as on FAT or NTFS drives.

If you've got a hanging issue, then it may be due to some resident software
(Creative is a possibility) fighting for control of the drive. You should
try to disable as much startup software as possible, maybe running in safe
mode, to see if you can eliminate possible contention.

 

[Guest]

Mike, thanks, and I forgot to mention that I did that previously. No
contenders were found. I'll also mention that I can't even boot if there's a
blank CD-R or a commercial music CD sitting in D. Again, no problem with
software and CD-Rs burned by others -- just blanks and music bought from a
store. I'm thinking hardware failure -- but only for specific types of CDs?

 

[Mike Williams [Thin Ice]]

Have you gone through all the startup services using MSCONFIG?

 

[Guest]

Ok Mike, here's my thing with msconfig...

I've used msconfig in the past and had good and wierd results.

Since this is my first xp system, I'd really appreciate a bit of advice
before I make the leap, especially since my initial attempt got me into the
situation I'll describe below.
And, especially since recently trying to get rid of %$popcorn got me into a
bit
of trouble.

Here's what happened..

I looked at the Startup services and did find some worms and other processes
I could do without.
So, I disabled them, applied, closed, and restarted.

On the restart, I got a popup telling me to either run in Diagnostic mode or
reset msconfig to run in Normal mode.

I did not check the box in the popup to run in Diagnostic mode so Msconfig
pops up.

I go back to the Startup tab, I see that everything I had disabled is
enabled again.
So, I disable them again,
click Apply,
then go to the General tab and select Normal mode.

But, before I close msconfig to start the reboot, I go back to Startup tab
and find that everything I just disabled is check marked enabled again(!?)

So, I simply did as the popup suggested and selected Normal mode (with the
startup processes I had disabled somehow getting re-enabled).

Basically, I guess my question is -- as a user new to XP, am I going to be ok
to disable the selected startup processes and not run in normal mode (seems
to automatically select Diagnostic mode)?
Especially with %$#popcorn lurking about?

And, thanks so much for your help.

 

[Mike Williams]

I don't know you disabled, however if you have worms and other stuff on your
system, then they are likely going to re-establish themselves. So you need
to thoroughly clean your system before addressing CD issues, and maybe those
issues will sort themselves out.

 

[Guest]

Using msconfig, I disabled all unnecessary startup processes.
On the reboot, windows advised that I was trying to come up in diagnostic
mode.
This time I allowed that to happen.
After the reboot completed, I ran msconfig and took a peek to verify all the
worms and such were disabled in msconfig's Startup tab.
They were still disabled as I had left them.
I then put a blank cd-r in the r/w cd drive.
Again, my machine locked up in 2-3 seconds.
So, no change.
My cd writer drive can handle cd-r's burned on other people's computers,
dvd-r's, and software.
But, the machine immediately locks up when I use a blank cd-r or
a mass produced commercial music cd.

The drive is a Sony CRX225E.
I sent a message to Sony's Tech Support a few days ago
and haven't heard back from them yet.
It's probably not critical, but I will mention that they did not have
the CRX225E in their list of products. Closest was CRX225A.

 

[Mike Williams]

1. I have no idea what "unnecessary startup processes" means to you.
2. If you have worms and malware, then almost anything can be happening on
your system. Clean it up.