Vista 64 Ultimate, with all OS and driver updates and a Plextor PX760A
DVD/CD drive.

No issues apparent in device driver.

All autoplay options set to "ask every time" (did that for testing
purposes, but I have tried them in all the standard autoplay
configurations too.)

No problem reports in the log

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\CONTRO L\CLASS\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
HAS BEEN CHECKED AND THERE ARE NO UPPER OR LOWER FILTER ENTRIES TO
DELETE

Here's the problem:

The DVD/CD drive will read DVDs, application or data CDS, and *some*
audio CDs.
Other audio CDs are either seen as blanks or send the drive into an
endless cycle attemptiing to read them.

Disk cleaning has been eliminated as a factor. A dirty lens is a
possibility but why will it reliably read the same disks and
consistently refuse to read others?

The audio CDs that won't read are mostly (but not all) new commercially
released music CDs from the last year, while nearly all older disks are
correctly recognized and play just fine.

My best guess on this is that it is a filter problem that isn't
reflected in the registry settings or it is a conflict with some type of
CD copy protection that has become more common across music CDs in the
last year or so, but I am frankly at my wit's end trying to overcome
this problem.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.


--
austex23

What label issues the CDs?
Do the CDs play on a regular CD player or in your car?
If it is a particular label you should be able to search for more
information on the issue.
If the problem is due to DRM there is no rational explanation for why a
music label would do this to consumers when CD sales are already plummeting
and non-DRM high bit rate files are cheaply available from sites like
Amazon.
On the other hand, given the amazing low prices for PC hardware it is clear
that lack of quality control is one reason for low price points--it may be
your drive.

Two of the problem CDs are Sub Pop, but that was the closest thing to a
common element among them. I tried one of them on an XP machine and it
read fine. They also play just fine in a standard CD player.

It may be the drive, but since it does a really superlative job of all
the other things it's supposed to do, I'm reluctant to switch it out
yet.


--
austex23