ND-2510a DVD Freezes System

I have an NEC ND-2510a DVD writer (firmware 2.16) (other systems specs
below); it's started to refuse to read CDs and DVDs. I'm not sure is
this problem related to Windows SP2?

When I insert a CD or DVD, for about a minute after, no light is seen
on the drive and no noise occurs. Only after about a minute is any
noise heard or light occurs. At each stage, although I can move my
mouse cursor, the system is unresponsive; I can't bring up the task
manager, activate buttons or use Windows Explorer, for example.

The system only becomes responsive once I open the drive using the
hardware button - though sometimes, the system freezes entirely at this
point.

I've tried to use the tools necflash.exe and its Windows GUI
counterpart, winflash.exe, to view details of the current firmware;
however, both of these freeze.

I _have_ been able to use the flash tool supplied by the Dangerous
Brothers (http://tdb.rpc1.org/#ND2510A) and was able to flash the drive
to the original 2.16 firmware; the output indicated this was performed
successfully, but the above problem still happens.

I plan to try the DVD writer on another machine to make sure the
problem is not with the computer. In the meantime, does anyone have
any help?

Cheers,

P.

System specs:


Windows XP Home
Athlon 2600+
Asus A7A266 Motherboard