ND-1100A, Windows Explorer hang, IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service flap

Hi - I've been having some performance problems and crashes lately that seem to be tied somehow to my NEC ND-1100A DVD-R/CD-RW drive.  The only errors in the logs consistently present around the time issues arise are below. 

I found a few similar posts elsewhere that suggest it might be a power issue, but the other posts all reference multiple internal drives and I haven't added any internal drives. 

There is frequently a passing OS hang after login, and I can reproduce the windows explorer hang consistently by right-clicking on any folder. 

OS is WinXP home edition, up to date via windows update.  Thanks in advance - any help is appreciated. 

Application Event:

Event Type: Information
Event Source: Winlogon
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1002
Date:  8/11/2004
Time:  12:58:27 AM
User:  N/A
Description:
The shell stopped unexpectedly and Explorer.exe was restarted.

System Events:

Event Type: Information
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7036
Date:  8/11/2004
Time:  12:58:40 AM
User:  N/A
Description: The IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service service entered the stopped state.

Event Type: Information
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7036
Date:  8/11/2004
Time:  12:58:34 AM
User:  N/A
Description: The IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service service entered the running state.

Event Type: Information
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7035
Date:  8/11/2004
Time:  12:58:34 AM
User:  NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
Description: The IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service service was successfully sent a start control.