Problem:  Can't write to my new Plextor W5224A (52/24/52A) CD-R drive. 
Setup:  P4 2.2MHz, Intel D850MV board, 1Gb RAM, 2 hard drives on
primary IDA (Ultra DMA Mode 5), 2 optical drives (DVD/CD set to DMA if
available, currently at PIO, and Plextor set to DMA if avail,
currently at Ultra DMA Mode 2)
Up until now:
1 - Write ability to CD write stopped working about a month ago.
Assumed it was the old CD-R drive, bought Plextor W5224A (52/24/52A)I
checked the firmware vs the latest version off the Plextor site and it
was up to date (1.3)
2 - Installed the software on the disk (PlexTools and EasyCreator 6).
System froze up, could not access the internet, could not delete
either program (couldn't get to the Add/Remove application)
3 - Did system restore to earlier point, worked. Ran Roxio remove
application off their site to get rid of any remnants of their
program. Internet now back, computer back but still could not write to
CD-R burner (Plextor). Got error message "there's no disc in the
drive". Did Google search on error message and found info at
http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;324129  
and reloaded drivers (cdrom.sys, imapi.sys, redbook.sys, storprop.dll)
from cab files stored on hard drive (Systemax computer).
4 - Work!! Now can write to Plextor using XP. 
5 - Got brave, I now installed PlexTool software off Plextor disk.
System immediately froze up again. No access to internet. No problem I
thought, I'll just do another restore. Did so.
6 - Now XP does not recognize the Plextor as a CD-R drive, only as a CD read drive!
7 - Followed the instructions in above Microsoft link to force
recognition as CD-R by editing the registry (changing the drive
designation from "3" to "2" on one of the optical drives) With that I
got the Plextor back as a CD-R drive. I accessed the drive through
device manager and activated the read capability and set the speed to
"fastest". However, I also go the old error message back.
8 - Tried reloading the drivers again from the CAB files but this time
it did not work! Still got the same error message. Furthermore, the
Plextor is reset by Windows spontaneously back to just a CD drive.
9 - Tried "Uninstall" and the "Scan for new hardware". XP only sees a
CD drive for the Plextor. I again go into the registry and manually
change it back to a CD-R (a "2) per the Microsoft instructions. See
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316529
But now, even through the registry is set to a "2" for CD-RW, the
Device Manager displays the drive as only a CD reader.

Two Questions: How do I get a workable CD-RW Plextor drive in XP??
Also, how can I get the Plextor to work with Easy Creator 6??

I also have Easy Media Creator 7 but am afraid to reinstall it! - I
did so once two weeks ago and the system slowed to a crawl - but at
least I could use the XP uninstall tool and did so - BTW, I updated
EMC 7 from the Roxio site, still no dice, dead slow to initialize,
10's of minutes.

I haven't yet tried installing Easy Creator 6 yet due to my bad
experience the first time although it was probably due to PlexTools
and not Easy Creator.

Regards, Bob

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Clarification of Question by bob423-ga on 19 Jan 2005 16:10 PST

Some additional observations:

1 - XP does recognize the Plextor as a CD-R drive and says there are
files ready to be written to it. I bought Maxell CD-R discs which are
on the approved list posted on the Plextor website just to be sure it
wasn't the brand of CD-R discs that was the problem. I still get the
message "Insert a writable disc to continue" followed by the message,
"There is no disc in the drive, Please insert a writable CD into drive
G:/"  when I use the CD Writing Wizard to attempt to write the files
in the "Files Ready to Be Written to the CD" section of File Explorer
for the drive.

2 - So, modifying the registry did work, it forced the drive to be
recognized correctly. It does not spontaneously go back to a plain CD
reader as I thought. I was looking at the wrong display.

3 - In Device Manager the Plextor drive is listed as "PLEXTOR CD-R
PX-W5224A" which never changed, even when XP only recognized it as a
CD reader instead of as a CD-R writer.

4 - Before doing the Plextor install, I did update the board BIOS with
the latest version off the Intel site using their update program.

5 - XP has all the latest updates off the Microsoft site (SP2 and
everything after that).

6 - I'm also running Norton System Works 2005 (latest updates), Norton
Firewall 2005 (latest updates) and SpySweeper (latest updates). I did
a full system scan last week with Norton Anti-virus and was clean.
Also with SpySweeper followed by AdAware followed by SpyBot, all
showed a clean system.

7 - Last night I ran System Check, no error messages. I also ran SFC
from the command line, same result.

I haven't yet gathered up the courage to re-install Easy Creator 6
which was bundled with the Plextor drive. I will certainly not try to
install PlexTools again! I'll probably try an EC6 install tomorrow.

I still have the most current copy of Easy Media Creator 7 ready for
use. If EC6 doesn't work, I'll try EMC7 after that. I have a restore
point without EC6 or Plextools installed and with XP able to write to
the Plextor but when I restored to that point (after installing
Plextools  and having a lockup - couldn't get to the uninstall
program) XP would not then write to the Plextor - even though it did
so just before I created the restore point.  Puzzling! I still have
the CD-R disc that I wrote to and can read the files that I wrote.

If there are any additional questions, just ask.

Regards, Bob

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Clarification of Question by bob423-ga on 19 Jan 2005 19:06 PST

In a further installment of this saga, I installed Easy CD Creator 6 a
few minutes ago off the disc supplied by Plextor. I did NOT install
PlexTools which apparently was the culprit in causing the computer to
lock up. After the install, I ran the engine update from the Roxio
site before attempting to write to a CD-R disc.

After the update, I tried a write and it worked! Easy  CD Creator 6 is
quick and responsive, unlike my experience with Easy Media Creator 7
which took forever to initialize.

There were a few more things I did before the above. I went through my
system and uninstalled anything that looked like a CD writing program.
I found HighMAT (upgrade by Microsoft?) on my system and Napster (put
there by Roxio during my install of Easy Media Creator 7 a couple of
weeks ago). I deleted both (I was not in the mood for lengthy
experiments on which one might have cause a problem - if either).
Naturally, I saved a restore point too.

After successfully writing with Easy CD Creator 6, I tried to use
Microsoft's write wizard and found that it still doesn't work. It
claims the disc in the drive is not writable (even though I can then
write to it with Easy CD Creator 6).

My question still stands if anyone wants to tackle it. It's down to
"how to get the window's CD write wizard to work." In my view,
everything ought to work. Something that doesn't work when it's
supposed to could "wind up a problem later on" (I was going to say
something else but it's a polite forum).

I feed like I'm holding a monolog but that's okay, my wife often says
the same thing.