What is the matter with this stupid thing?!?
 

All right, everyone--who's good with computers? Because I have a slight problem that's really bugging me and I'm trying hard not to cuss as we speak. Almost every time I go to burn a CD--any kind, audio or files--it messes up. Sometimes it will work, but more often, it either quits...or does something weird. Sometimes it will mess up right at the beginning, other times it will get all the way to the end and make me think it's working and then wham, it just stops. And I'm running out of CDs here, because every time it does this there's another CD I can't use because it's ruined. I'm using this horrible Windows Media Player to burn with (which sucks anyway, don't use it), but it's all I have since my other programs that came on the computer got deleted when the computer crashed and the hard drive had to be reformatted. Can anyone tell me what might be the trouble before I go absolutely insane?

No idea really all I can suggest is a) CD-RW drive is faulty or b) try using different software to burn the CDs. You can try making sure you're using branded CDs but I don't think that makes too much difference. Try downloading a copy of Nero from shareware.com or nero.com or wherever. Some people like it; there's also (Roxio) EasyCD Creator but I don't know if that comes as shareware. Or XP allows you to drag and drop to a CD drive and then click on the balloon thing in the taskbar system tray which appears to burn files to the CD. Also try to make sure you're not doing load of other things on the PC at the same time, just burn the CD on its own. That's all I can come up with.

Hey, something similar happened to me a few weeks ago.

Basically, it SEEMS like the problem was the blank CD's I was trying to burn to. Once I switched the type of CD, I was fine.

Perhaps you are using CD's that were in the sun too long, got scratched, or something. I dunno. All I know is that I switched from CD's you could burn to CD's you could burn and re-burn if desired.

Re: What is the matter with this stupid thing?!?
 

There's your problem right there ;) Try Roxio Easy CD Creator.

Be sure that you're finalizing your disc. Some programs will let you leave the CD in a state where you can add more data; if you eject your target disc while it's in that state, you won't be able to read it.

Another thing to consider with audio discs is that some older CD players, notably car CD players, can't play them.

ETA: Or you could just have a bad batch of CD-Rs. It's happened to me too.

okay, this happened to me too and i realized my burner was always messing up on the same song. So i stopped trying to burn that song and it was fine! I do recommend Roxio CD creator though!