CD-ROM stops working after a few hours

[joey2k]

Like the title says, my HP CD-Writer Plus 8200 series (somewhat old) will stop reading CDs after my computer has been on for more than a few hours. I can't reboot to fix it, I have to do a full power cycle. The performance of the CD-Writer seems to gradually deteriorate over the hours until it won't read at all and hangs the computer until I eject it. It just started doing this in the past couple months. It's a few years old.

Thanks for any responses,
-- Joel

Computer Hardware:
Althlon XP 1700+ (OC, but stock bus speed) on Epox 8k3a with 512 MB RAM
WD HD 7200 RPM 8 MB 120 GB (IDE0)
HP CD-Writer Plus 8200 series (IDE1)
Iomega Zip 100 (IDE1)
3 1/2 floppy
Case temp runs fairly cool (21 C right now, but will probably rise to about 30 when the room is warmer)

Software:
Windows XP Pro
Running Virtual DAEMON Manager (free CD-ROM emulator)
No 3rd party CD software like Nero, just plain jane xp

 

[joey2k]

^

 

[arcenite]

I have a feeling the drive just may be getting ready to retire. It's its way of telling you to replace it with a new 52x Lite-On

 

[Tab]

Yea, you might want to look at a new one for christmas