Solved PC freezes when trying to access CD/DVD Drive

[tward059]

About a month ago I started having issues with my PC (Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit / Dell Studio 8100) when accessing programs ie. dbPoweramp or Roxio EasyCD.
I finally resorted to the option of installing everything on my PC again (a fresh clean start) and backed up a clean image with Acronis.
Programs started working again for about a month (in that time ripped 3 CD's for a SD card in my car).
About 3 days ago the issues started again with dbPoweramp and Roxio EasyCD. I'd put a CD in the drive and the program would recognise the disc, but freeze when I started to rip. After a couple of attempts I noticed the CD/DVD player no longer appeared in Device Manager.
I started to blame the last windows updates / drivers etc, so reinstalled my Acronis image.
The CD/DVD player now appears in Device Manager but have the problems when accessing any programs that require the CD/DVD drive, even windows media player. WMP will play off the harddrive, but freezes if I put a CD in the drive.
Device Manager says the CD player is working correctly.
The CD/DVD drive is over 4 years old, so for the sake of £12 I've ordered a new one.
Delivery will take about a week. Is there a way to check if it is my CD/DVD drive that is playing up, or has anyone encountered anything similar and think they may have a solution?
(am I following the wrong route)

 

[fireberd]

Disable the Roxio "Drag To Disc" and see if that makes a difference. It has been known to cause problems with CD/DVD drives.

Packet Burning should not be used, anyway as its the least reliable method. I use to work the Dell forums and we saw a lot of problems related to packet burning and the packet burning programs.

I've personally had problems with Roxio and finally dumped them for Nero. The free CDBurnerXP should take care of all of your burning needs.

 

[tward059]

Thanks for the suggestion fireberd. I uninstalled both dbPoweramp and Roxio EasyCD 10, restarted the PC, put a CD in the drive and the disc was spinning but nothing launched so I launched WMP manually and the PC froze. Just tried launching WMP with no CD in the drive and it's frozen again.
WMP does not play from the Harddrive now, but VLC does.
Will reinstall my Acronis image and uninstall the programs without putting a disc in and see is WMP players from the harddrive again.

 

[fireberd]

Could it be a problem with your disc image? The problem was there when you made the image but wasn't aware of any problems?

Could also just be a bad drive.

 

[tward059]

I have convinced myself it's a bad drive, VLC does not read a disc either.

As soon as my new drive arrives I will post if it was the solution.

Thank You for the interest and advice,

Tony

 

[tward059]

Thanks for the advice, New CD/DVD burner arrived today.

Everything is back to normal.

Problem resolved.