So, I installed a recommened XP patch from Microsoft, something having to w/ CD-RW’s. Now, granted it said it was for people having trouble, and I wasn’t, I said what the heck. Can’t do any harm? Right?

You would think that after all this time I would have learned my lesson. But noooooooo! Ok, so here’s the skinny on what happened. The first time I went to use Nero was tonight. Nero kept telling me to insert blank media. Third times a charm? Nah, the third Maxell that went into the drive came up NG.

With Google toolbar in hand, I searched the newsgroups for other unfortunate souls. What I was able to come up with was that perhaps my CD-RW needed a firmware upgrade. This is where shit really turned downhill.

After I installed the firmware, which BTW, went w/o a hitch, the drive proceded to open and then close. Upon closing, the drive started to make a God awful racket. Long story short, a phone cord dangling below the desk was caught between the lip of the tray and the faceplate. Of course I wasn’t quite sure if this noise was supposed to be happening, but as it turned out, this was not by design. So, now the fun part.

After rebooting several times, the drive started to make some really horrible sounds, much worse then the cord stuck in the door. Oh, and BTW, it also no longer worked. I journied upstairs to explain to Meg why it had now taken over an hour to dupe one CD. I told her what was going on and that I had to perform some cyber-surgery. In other words, I was goin’ in.

I proceded to expose the dust filled innerds of my machine to some fresh air. I picked it up off the floor and off to the bench in the garage it went. Once on the bench, I headed right for the drive. Ya know, it’s kinda neat inside there. Anyhow, when I popped the cover off, a part fell out, but luckily I was able to figure out where it went.

Since at this point the drive couldn’t be more broken then I though it was, what would be the harm in applying some juice? So I powered it up! Yes, that’s right, real raw dawg stuff. And ya know what? No more noise.

So I reinstalled the drive, twice. Once w/o the CD audio cable and once with. Brought that baby back downstairs, reconnected the myriad of cables, and presto change-o, a-la peanutbutter & jelly sandwiches, everything worked.

So there ya go, install software patches from XP with extreme prejudice. 🙂