OK bud, your comp is very underpowered for XP, if you have too many progs starting up, that's the reason your dvd-rom locks up, there's also issues with some of Creatives software. Maybe if your drive is old (like very very old!) your only option is to upgrade the drive... I know it is bad bud, but when I used to doubleboot between Win2k and Me, I used to have to disable my scanner for 2K and my IDE controller for ME, It's just nuts! Try to find updated drivers too.