I am using Windows XP SP3.
Since 14th January I have been experiencing very odd behavior with a third part application, dBpoweramp Music Converter. The application rips CDs, converts formats, and has a very easy and effective tag editing function, or it did up until 14 January. From that date the CD ripping and music converting functions have been unusable and I am quite baffled as to why.
Illustrate, the makers of the app have been quite supportive, even supplying a new registered copy of the app, however none of this has helped, and other music converting apps, (NCH Switch, and Foobar 2000) have also had problems converting formats, though Windows Media Player will still rip CDs. As will the frustratingly difficult to tweak EAC.
Via their forum Illustrate have suggested that "Other programs would not effect each other, only drivers, security software and SCSI filters could effect ripping."
So from that the problem with dMC should not have affected Switch, or Foobar which leaves drivers, security apps and SCSI filters.
I have not installed any hardware recently so that should eliminate drivers.
My security apps are Symantec Corporate AV, Spybot S&D, Malwarebytes, and Comodo firewall. The first two have been on the computer for some time, and Malwarebytes since late last year when AVG stopped supporting their stand alone anti spyware. These apps are updated weekly or even more frequently, but I doubt any of them has downloaded a driver or SCSI filter, and none of the apps would (I think) disable a piece of software and not report that a "threat" had been quarantined or deleted,
I don't have any SCSI devices on the computer, Windows asks several times during a reinstall, so I don't know where an SCSI filter would have come from. A search of the system including hidden and system folders, for SCSI filters revealed nothing, and not really knowing how, or from where, I may have acquired a filter, I don't know what else to search for. I did a Google search for SCSI filters and the first hit was my thread on the Illustrate forum! So I am not sure what information is out there, and I am into the territory of stuff I really don't properly comprehend, hence this post.
I am baffled and quite frustrated by this problem, I was using the app quite a lot to rip CDs, and convert formats, and now that only the tag editing functions are working as normal I am bereft, and the fact that alternative apps are also not able to convert formats is a real puzzle.
Would an SCSI filter, by whatever name, show up in a Hijack This or Malwarebytes log?

If you have a System Restore point prior to the 14th try that.

System Restore
--------------------------------------------------
You might try a System Restore to a point prior to your problem:

start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore


As to the filter question this is what they speak of:

CD drive filters etc.
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"CD Recording Software Will Cause Windows to Become Unstable" error message when you start Windows XP

Hi Jephree,
Already tried a system restore, I had a point on the 13th. Unfortunately this did not solve the problem.
As for CD drives I have not received error messages like those described in the link.

Regardless of the error message you should remove those filters if they are there.

These filters are added by third parties, not Microsoft, and should not be there.

These filters are added by third parties, not Microsoft, and should not be there.

The problem is I do not know what these filters are called, or where they may be stored if they are present. How do I search for something that I don't know the name of?
Windows has not been affected by this issue, it is the application that is no longer working, and its error messages indicated the CoreConverter.exe as what is not working.
The Event Viewer for System starts on 17 Jan, so that is not helpful, for Application it simply mentions that the app is no longer working, about as close to a filter I can see is this:
"The description for Event ID ( 0 ) in Source ( NMIndexingService ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: Service started."
The next entry is indicating the application has stopped working properly and is "hanging" - at this point I had to use the task manager to terminate an obviously unsuccessful rip.
NMI is part of Nero, should I disable Nero? Kind of confused here.

The link I posted shows where these filters are.

They are in the registry and can be deleted from there.

If Nero appears to be an issue then remove it and see if the issue is resolved.

None of the keys mentioned in that link were found in the registry. Not surprising, I have never had Adaptec software on this machine (or Roxio)
Baffled

The "built-in" CD burner in XP is Roxio EZ CD software.

My understanding of those filters are they are created when this Roxio software is overwritten by a third party burner.

Anyway did you try removing Nero. Or perhaps uninstall/reinstall?

Yes I have removed Nero, no difference.
Nero has been on this machine for some time, if Roxio left filters behind, or created them when overwritten, why did the problem take so long to appear? I did a Windows reinstall at the start of November, and also reinstalled Nero (and dBpoweramp) at that time. The problem appeared mid January.
I would think, not that I am in any way an expert, that if overwriting XP's native CD burning software would cause problems it would have done so at that time.
Yet to reinstall Nero, but I am not optimistic that it will change anything.

Did this by any chance coincide with SP3 or did it work after installing SP3?

There is always the option of removing SP3.