ok, now this is spooky. MY CD burner ceased working a few weeks ago. i had always used the Roxio software that came on my puter. i too quit screwing with it after ruining a pile of media.

then, my brother's CD burner stopped working. he used WMP like you. it says no burning device exists. his machine is practically new.

my burner is a TEAC CD-W224E, a thinline drive designed for laptops but living in my 3 year old Dell small-footprint desktop. It probably only burned 20-30 discs in its entire life.

Am I missing something? Doesn't iTunes burn for free?

iconomy is iTunes-impaired if memory serves.

I have always used Nero, because it has come with every CD-Burner I have ever bought, but have heard good things about Roxio also. In my experience, CD-Burners have a fairly limited lifespan and can cease burning for no apparent reason while still working perfectly well as a CD-ROM drive. Computers are funny things.

Perhaps you could try downloading a trial copy of Nero to check whether the problem is software or hardware?

I have had trouble with both Nero and Roxio with multiple burners. I have had no problems for more than a year since I started using Nero to burn an image to the drive then using Alcohol to burn the disk.

When I make mix disc through my computer I use Roxio to burn the individual tracks to the hard drive from disc, then make the mix with Nero.

I like Nero's features like the volume leveler for a mix (uneven levels drive me nuts) and it's pretty much a no hassle tool for making mixes. But the Roxio software seems to be the easiest way get my CDs to the hard drive in the first place. Both programs have served me well in the year and half or so that I've been able to make mixes through the computer thanks to finally getting an external burner. But when I have the time, I still prefer making mixes on my free standing burner run through my stereo.

iconomy is iTunes-impaired if memory serves

Heh. I don't recall ever mentioning iTunes, but you are correct, sir. I mean...I've never used it and don't have it - if by that you mean I'm impaired, then yep I am. Does it burn CDs? I did not know that ;)

Thanks for the tips and leads! This is making me insane. We have roxio at work and it's always been great for me. I thought I downloaded all of it onto a CD to bring home and use on my home computer, but it the exe file won't run, so somehow I've screwed that up too...geez.

Oh...the first thing I'm going to try is WMP 10, which I'm d/ling now...just because it's a known entity (to me), and it's free.

Update: I burned to the CD using WMP 10, and it went fine until right before the last song (there was room for it) when the disc decided to close on its own. So it's obviously my cd-rom, and not the software I was using. Grrr. So I got an almost whole copy this time...

WMP 10 has a very nice interface, by the way.

Confession: since uploading my mix, attempted burns of it using both iTunes and Roxio have failed; I suspect it's one of the VBR-encoded mp3's, but who knows? In any case: sorry, and I am going to try the Nero > Image > Alcohol method myself.