[irishcrazy2005]

Luckily I already have backups of most everything. The unfortunate part is that anything I have to back up still is very difficult to burn off (as noted in my above post). Anyhow, there may have been a blank DVD sitting in the drive, although I can't remember for sure now. You are probably right and that was it. I am still very concerned about my lack of ability to burn stuff though. I will run this RAM check. I'm on a laptop, so opening the case is out of the question. I'm running Windows XP Pro. The hard drive (whole computer too) is only one year old. It is an Emachines M6811. I think that I answered all of your questions in this rambling post.

-Phil