VERY slow CD recognition and initial playing and ejecting ..

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support (More info?)

My year-and-a-half-old Gateway computer (with hyperthreading, 512 MB 333MHz
DDR RAM, and an Intel Pentium 4 Processor -- 3.06 GHz with 533 MHz FSB --
whatever that all means, including all the bells and whistles) takes forever
to recognize a CD when I put it in either drive. For example, when I want to
record something to a CD and I put the blank CD in either drive, the green
light on the drive comes on briefly, then it goes out and for the next few
minutes nothing seems to be happening -- no hourglass on screen, nothing. My
computer does not show that a disk has been put in the drive. Then, after a
few minutes, the windows window finally opens and shows me the list of
suggested programs to use to deal with the CD.

Likewise, when I push the button on either drive to try to eject the CD,
nothing happens for a few minutes. Eventually, however, it does eject.

This is true for blank CDs and program CDs that I buy. When I play the same
CDs on my older, MUCH slower computers, they always load quickly.
I am running Norton Internet Security (current) and Webroot Spy Sweeper. I
tried the Microsoft AntiSpy Beta program but it reported no Spyware before I
installed and ran the Webroot product and found that there were quite a few.
So, I uninstalled the Microsoft program.

I assume something is running in the background and is hogging system
resources but I cannot figure out what. Remembering what trouble old TSR
(Terminate and Stay Resident) programs used to cause to older versions of
Windows, I uninstalled programs that I do not need and even tried disabling
Norton Internet Security but that made no difference.

Please help if you can. Please reply to AutoMatters@Yahoo.com. Thank you.