It's only taken two clean installs of Windows 2000 and all the applications and a total restore of all the data, but we appear to be getting to the nub of the problems that appeared when we tried running our new HP 9510i CD burner.

It seems that HP is innocent this time and that it's an Adaptec plug-in to Windows Media Player 7 that causes a conflict with Direct CD from, er, Adaptec.

One of the key features of WMP7 (shipped with Windows ME, with which it works fine) is the ability to write directly to a CD writer. To facilitate this, an Adaptec plug-in is used which unfortunately causes all installed CD's to become unusable on any machine running WMP7 under Windows 2000.

HP came up with a workaround this afternoon which is claimed to restore the non-functional drives. We haven't tried it yet, but it goes something like this:

1) Go to Settings from the Start Menu
2) Select Control Panel
3) Select Add/Remove Programs
4) From the list, select Windows Media Player 7
5) Click the Uninstall component parts box
6) Put a check in the box next to remove "Adaptec CD burning Plugin".

Once the plugin is removed, all is returned to normal.

Numerous readers have written in response to our original story having hit similar problems with CD writers from a wide variety of manufacturers. Some have turned to alternative burning software like Ahead's Nero, while others have given up altogether and reverted to Win98 for CD writing duties.

We suspect that Adaptec is also on the case on this one, as one reader today referred us to a FAQ on the company's support web site referring to WMP7 problems which has now mysteriously disappeared.

Rest assured we'll stay on top of this one. ®

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