Hi Again Ryan
I would suggest if you can get a new Bios for your motherboard you Download it and Install it and see if that makes any difference !
As for Samsung I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole I personally think they are one of the worst CRDW's ever made (But that is only my own personal opinion) If you are looking for cheap one I would suggest that you go for the Lite-on or if you want a good high quality one I would go for the Yamaha 3200e 24x10x40 and at the moment they are quite cheap and to get something better than this it would cost quite a lot more! But in the end the Choice is yours !!!
And as for formating your Hard-drive I would test your new Writer with your existing Windows first and if you are still getting problems then I would format it and re-install Windows Xp!
I hope this Helps !!!
Laffin Assassin
New Hardware & Software isn't released it's allowed to escape !!!