To make a really long story relatively short... I'm now reasonably confident the problem is caused by the CD-RW drivers, but I don't yet fully understand what's going on.
Once I started using my CD-RW drive (a brand new Plextor PX-W4824A) I discovered that I had two problems: the original problem of a 7-second delay in bringing-up the right-click context menus (which is really annoying) and, whenever I would click on the "CD, DVD, and Handhelds" object or a CD drive object, I would get an "Analyzing Devices" message that would last about 7 seconds. I also noticed the problem (previously reported) where, under the "CD Writer Settings" the "Use Generic Driver" setting was greyed-out and checking/unchecking the aspi setting seemed to have no effect.
I updated my aspi drivers, etc. and it didn't seem to help. I discovered in the Interact forums a message indicating that newer CD-RW drives might not be supported by the generic GoldenHawk drivers used in MJ8 and the only resolution is to upgrade to Media Center 9.
So... I (reluctantly) upgraded to Media Center 9.
Under MC9 the right-click problem (mostly) goes away. I still get about a 7-second delay and the "Analyzing Devices" message when clicking the "CD, DVD, and Handhelds" object. The right-click context menu appears immediately under MC9, however, there is about a 7-second delay when you hover over the "CD, DVD, and Handhelds" submenu option.
I think this all implies that the right-click delay under MJ8 is caused by delays in accessing the CD-RW drive (which is likely dynamically populated in the MJ8 right-click context menu).
In addition to MJ8/MC9 I also have MusicMatch and Roxio installed (masochistic). Both of these products add CD-RW drivers to the stack. My suspicion is that there may be conflicts in the drivers that causes
MJ8/MC9 to take several seconds to work through whenever it tries to access the device.
Question: Is it normal behavior for MC9 to take several seconds to "Analyze Devices" whenever a CD drive is selected? I hope not. I would think that "Analyzing Devices" once should be sufficient.
What I still don't understand is:
- Why did the right-click problem go away for two days between when I uninstalled the MS patch and when I installed a MusicMatch update? These seem to be completely unrelated.
- Why didn't updating my aspi drivers fix the problem under MJ8?
- Is the constant "Analyzing Devices" behavior normal under MC9?
I'm, frankly, somewhat perturbed to have to pay to upgrade to MC9 to (partially) fix my problems, when I didn't need need the additional features. I'm also disappointed not to have received any meaningful
follow-through to my original problem (no respose to my last post). I would have much rather focused all these hours on music, and not my usual job of resolving system problems.