I finally found a workaround that works most of the time. This is how it goes:
1) I have removed the "CDDB enable online lookup" feature
2) I put in the next CD to record, click on devices, and MJ exits as usual...
3) I restart MJ, click on Devices and - sometimes - it just shows the CD tracks - sometimes MJ exits again and I have to restart
4) If MJ does NOT restart, then I can use the "get CDDB" before doing the Rip CD and everything works fine
5) I then remove the CD, put in a new one, and now MJ again tries to get information from CDDB, even I have still the flag set to NOT access CDDB automatically. MJ exits and I have to start from item 1)
still very annoying but a least a workaround
So, what do I say? There is no problem with accessing CDDB, there is no CD-ROM driver problem and there is no problem with digital playback. But there seems to be some timing problem with the automatic CDDB access which causes MJ to exit. I would be very happy if you could investigate this.
Thanks again
Pietro