Does this occur with audio cd's, data cd's, or all cd's?  And what other software is running?  This is llike a problem I was having with audio cd's, but not data cd's. I think I solved it by finding a process, mim.exe, which is part of Musicmatch Jukebox.  Look at the task manager, and then under processes, look for mim.exe. If it is there, stop it. Then see if that made a difference. I found that even if Jukebox wasn't running at the time, the process might still be.  I found two instances of that file in the computer and renamed it so it wouldn't run again.  I haven't decided yet to remove the Jukebox software (it is a nice media  program).

Musicmart1

That's worse than what my problem was, and goes beyond my knowledge.  Someone out there must know what the "explorer.exe not responding" is all about.  I have seen that on occasion too.  Good luck.

Musicmart

The problem occurs with both drives and with all media. I do not have DLA as I removed it some time ago.I have tested both drives and they passed all tests. I uninstalled both drives and reinstalled them. Same problems. I went to safe mode and they both worked as they should. However, I can't install any programs in safe mode. When I return to Normal mode, the problem persists.

When the computer is running and I insert an installation disk in the drive the drive runs momentarily. When I go to Start, Run the computer freezes up. I sometime have the error message, Explorer.exe not responding.