I have this problem as well. Paused for about three minutes this afternoon, came back pressed play and MC locked up.
wickesy
Media Center Registered 9.0.142 -- C:\Media Jukebox\
Microsoft Windows XP 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
AMD Athlon 2081 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 523 MB, Free - 99 MB
Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1106 (xpsp1.020828-1920)
Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1145 (xpsp2.021108-1929) / wnaspi32.dll: Internal ASPI Layer
Ripping / Drive D: Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Drive E: Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer CD Type:IDE Read speed:Max
Drive G: Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer CD Type:Auto Read speed:Max
Digital playback: Yes / Use YADB: Yes / Get cover art: Yes / Calc replay gain: Yes / Copy volume: 32767
Eject after ripping: No / Play sound after ripping: No
Burning / Drive E: LITE-ON LTR-48246S Addr: 1:1:0 Speed:48 MaxSpeed:48 Use MJ Engine:Yes
Test mode: No / Eject after writing: Yes / Direct decoding: No / Write CD-Text: No
Use playback settings: No / Normalization: None