I will try to keep this short as possible,I have in the past week tried 4 different external usb2 CD writers but all have same issue/problem ,CD'S WONT BURN. we can rule out the type of media and the writing software as the problem,also system capability/ Compaq Evo 610c with 512mb ram.30 gig hard drive,85 % free, all windows xp pro updates installed,formated hard drive and clean install of xp, i did receive 3 chipset and notebook driver updates, which worked for 2 Cd's only then back to same problem,can anyone offer some advice please?

Are you burning on the fly or burning to hd first? Are your USB ports 2.0? That shouldn't make a difference in being able to burn but the maximum speed you would get is 4X if they're not.

thank you for your suggestion, but i think i have sorted it out
I run the aspi check and update,and seems to have cured it (Fingers X)