W2k Won't Load with DVD or CD connected

[David]

HELP! I did a fresh install W2k PRO, downloaded SP4 plus
all the updates, and now windows hangs at the startup
screen if either my DVD burner or CD burner is connected.
Prior to this I was getting "unsafe eject" messages from
the "Unplug or Eject Hardware" systray app.

This is making me crazy -- I loaded W2k from a bootable CD-
ROM, and no combination of jumpers or cabling seems to fix
the problem.

The CMOS boot screen shows the devices fine, it's windows
that hangs at the launch -- I don't even get a blue screen.

I'd appreciate any help I can get on this -- everything
was fine about 45 days ago.

 

[David]

UPDATE: After researching this item I recalled potential
hardware issues with MediaPlayer9, so I removed MP9 and
reverted to an earlier version -- now it seems everthing
works fine.

So now I'm curious -- anyone have some insight as to
what's going on? I'm on a PC CHIPS motherboard, AMD
Athlon 1800 w/256MB RAM, W2k SP4, Acer CD Burner and
IOMAGIC generic DVD multimode burner.