The symptoms have changed slightly - instead of the "gathering info" window, it goes directly to a "Media Core" error and crashes. This is only when selecting one of the CD devices in the "CD, DVD, and Handhelds" folder. If I go directly to "Rip CD", I still get the gathering information window, but it still freezes and I must force a shutdown. And I'll still get the "Media Core" crash, just now it's after I force the close.
The system inclues 2 CD drives; CD "E:" is SCSI and CD "F:" is IDE (the only IDE device and primary master). E: is analog audio only where F: is digital playback. strangely, F: has a noticably quiet sound output and sad audio quality. Don't know if this is worth anything in this post, just thought I'd mention it. Both CDs play in winamp 2 and 3 without problems and can reach CDDB just fine. Control of the CD playing function works as well - a function I've had problems with in MC prior to the crashes. I could play CDs but could not stop, FF, RW or use any other functions.
I'd really like to get to the bottom of this. I like MC very much, but I need a return on the cost and I'm not seeing that with all these problems. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!