Ok tecchies...here is my problem. I have two CD drives, one CD-R and one CD-RW. These each read data fine...but when I put in a music CD and try to play it, it locks up, regardless of which drive I use. Which is no big deal as I usually listen to music elsewhere. But iTunes also locks up when I am attempting to rip music CD's and I now cannot add any more music to my iPod.

Does this sound like a driver related issue, or is it more likely hardware related? I don't want to buy a new computer for a problem that is a relatively easy fix,but if I cannot get to the bottom of this the situation mandates that a new computer has to be gotten.

TIA

make sure autoplay is turned off - it's probably trying to load some sort of drm rubbish.

Thanks for the suggestion...the autoplay is set to 'prompt action' rather than 'play'. I have had no problem with either playing or ripping CD's until now, and no settings have been altered that I am aware of.

I did try changing the Autoplay to 'take no action' for music CDs...but when I then loaded one, it just sat there, unrecognized so I set the autoplay back to 'prompt action'. AND-now both playing and ripping are working again. Why I have no idea, but at least I am up and running and have saved a couple of kilobucks-today.

Thanks again

Aaaargh..needless to say the second CD I tried to rip froze up again. This looks like an intermittent problem that is there more often than not.

Circuit City opens in 2 hours.

what are you using to rip the cds? As a possible workaround if you don't want to go hunting for what the record companies may have hidden on your pc, have you tried EAC ?

I am using i-Tunes to rip the CDs to AAC files I can then import onto the iPod. iTunes online database recognized the CD, but when I try to import it I then get locked up.

In the last hour or so of playing around, I find that when I load a CD it plays with Media Player. If I then exit MP and go to iTunes, I can them rip/import without mishap. But if I go straight to iTunes when the disk is loaded, then it freezes up when I try to import. This frustrating phenomenon is new and previously I had no problems whatever using iTunes.

thing is it's affecting both your drives which is what makes me think that it's something lurking on your pc rather than the drives. If you look at task manager when you pop a cd in does anything else appear other than media player?

I've had probs with the latest iTunes up date it could be the same for you. It could also be because the cds your loading have copycode. There's a nice little prog called "AnyDVD" which can help with these sort of probs as it can over-ride most copycodes.
Unfortunately your just experiencing some of those recurring and annoying PC foibles, but I bet you didn't get any before you loaded iTunes.

At least the older versions (and perhap the current versions) of Nero's InCD product can cause very flaky problems with CD readers. I believe other 'direct to CD' products (Roxio's Drag to Disc, for example) may also cause flaky problems.

Bets of luck - and lets us know how you solve it when you do.

Regards.

Phil