I don't know how long I've had this problem, because I've been primarily getting my music through Napster for quite a long time now, and I can't remember the last time I actually ripped a CD, but:
the last time I ripped a CD, it wouldn't actually rip, so I ripped it on my laptop instead, which had no problems with it. I assumed the drive just didn't like that particular disc.
However, I'm just trying to rip another one, and it won't rip that either. Exactly the same symptoms. MC says "Media Center has detected a new CD in drive E: but can't get the correct volume information. Please try ejecting and reinserting the CD."
It lists the right number of tracks, and correctly shows the duration of each of the tracks. But of course, it just fails to do the YADB lookup (and not just because it's an obscure disc). ("The CD lookup failed")
If I try and play it, it says "The track name 'Track 1' cannot be played because the volume labeled 'Compact Disc' was not found. Would you like to try again?"
If I tell it to rip, instead, I get the message about not detecting a new CD twice. After the first one, the Rip Disc stuff appears in the Action Window. After the second one, Vista (yes, it's Vista) tells me "Media Center has stopped working" and kills off MC.
This is MC 12.0.318. It did it in .308, and a slightly earlier version that I can't remember the version of.
This could be related to the fact that MC crashes regularly anyway - and particularly when it's importing stuff.
The funny thing is, all other software is fine with the CDs. They can play them perfectly normally. It's only MC that has the problem...
I've just turned UAC back on (I had it disabled). I'm just waiting for it to reboot, and I'll see if that makes any difference. I don't imagine it will, but you never know...
Update: turning UAC back on didn't make any difference.
So I'm stumped now - any ideas at all? There just doesn't seem to be anything to configure in MC for how it reads the discs...