I have Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit with SP 1 and Windows XP pro SP 3 . DVD drive-- "HL-DT-ST DVD RAM GH22NP20" by LG .Every time i insert a dvd or cd, blank or written, scratched or not scratched, explorer.exe freezes and stops responding and i have to remove the disc from the drive to make it normal.Everything works perfect in XP.
i think its the dvd ram driver issue with some of those.check firmware revison of the drive. once i had same issue and was bad dvd drive. even firmware didnt fix it.
A driver issue could also be the problem also depending on how old your drive may be also. If worse comes to worse, you can snag a new one off newegg for $17 depending on if you have SATA / IDE
Hmm, It is not a hardware issue(it works perfectly on all of my discs in XP)Updating the frimware and driver now
It is the last option for me. I just found a software called XYplorer.Now testing it. It is not free.So anyone know a free replacement for XYlorer
In your title you state "Windows 7 freezing while opening DVDs and CDs" yet in the body of your original post you indicate the Windows file manager is what's freezing. Hence you're trying to find an alternative to the Windows file manager. The two are not the same ... Windows 7 is the Operating System and the file manager (c:Windows\explorer.exe) is an application (that's part of the operating system) that runs within the OS. What is actually freezing, Windows 7 the OS or the file manager application explorer.exe?
Do you have any virtual drive software installed like Demon tools, or Ultra ISO. Software like these install a service that hooks the DVD/CD drivers and could be the cause of this problem. If you have installed some DVD/CD software, that are not made for Win 7 (old XP software), then uninstall them or upgrade them, and try the DVD again and see if the problem is still happening. Then uninstall the virtual CD software and see if that corrects the problem. Also Explorer is a main part of the OS, so if it hangs bad it will hang the whole OS sometimes.
Very true, but the OP doesn't say that's happening since when he pulls the disk from the drive the computer returns to normal ops. That tells me your comment about incompatible software is a very good one. That and possibly the use of XP drivers in the 7 installation.