Unfortunately, the DVD drive I have has died (Extremely Strange Issues on SE440BX-2 System), likely from where I attempted to clean the lens. There is some good news: I bought it and a strange Microsoft TechNet CD Subscription binder full of service pack CDs, updates, presentations, beta software (it has the entire Office 2003 suite- just in beta form) together for only US$3.00 from a thrift store. So it's not that great of a loss, considering it technically only costed US$1.50.

So I'm back to my old main driver for my SE440BX-2 system, a Samsung SC-148F 48x CD-ROM drive. Here's the issue with that: when I enable autoplay on that drive, it "autoplay loops," a.k.a, the CD's installer will open the first time normally, but when I start installing the software it runs autoplay again.. and again.. and again. When I was installing Half-Life WON and wasn't paying attention, it opened over a dozen of the autoplay windows, bogging down the system to a near halt.

I'm thinking that this is a result of a need for a firmware update, but I can't find a firmware update for the SC-148F anywhere. There's updates for the SC-148A, and SC-148C, but not the SC-148F. I'd rather not brick my only other drive that's not horrifyingly yellowed by installing a firmware for a slightly different revision, which is why I haven't went ahead and done that.