Sony DW-D22A dvd burner problems

My computer recently crashed and I was forced to reformat the hard drive and reinstall Windows (currently XP Professional Service Pack 2). The sucker is completely updated now, and I have reinstalled many of the programs I was using before. However, I am having a serious problem with my burner. It has no trouble reading cds and dvds, or playing them. However, any time I try and burn a dvd with it, the program I try and use locks up. When I open the tray and remove the cd, the program crashes and windows returns to normal.

What's stranger is that I downloaded Sony's "Drivecheck" program to see if the drive was somehow toasted. It was able to successfully and read and write to a dvd in a matter of moments. I'm trying to understand why the drivecheck program can burn dvds but, for example, easy media creator or nero can't. As a side note, dvd decryptor (and shrink, and about 4 other programs) cannot seem to read dvds either. They do the same thing as the burning programs; lock up and crash when I finally open the tray.

I'm at a loss for an explanation. One would assume that shit would just work after a complete reformat and reinstall. Anybody have any clue what's going on here?

 

I never even tried it before I installed Service Pack 2. When I reformat systems, I don't even think twice - i just install the new service packs and security updates before I do anything.

I am also having a great deal of trouble believing this is a software problem. I just tried to burn a dvd with the windows drag and drop bullshit, with the same effect as all the other programs I've been using.

The drive worked perfectly before, so iduno what's going on.

In case anyone cared to know, it's an athlon xp 2200+ with 512 megs of ram. Standard onboard video, and a cd burner installed below the dvd burner.