Plextor CD-RW only recognizes audio CDs sometimes data cds never

PX -W4824A
I had the old uninstalled EZCD Creator 4 from XP SP3 and had to use the delete the Upper & Lower Filters in the registry fix to get Device Manager to remove the yellow triangle exclamation points from my CD drives problem. Once the drives were recognized both in Device Manager & Windows Explorer (this was happening to an old Creative DVD-ROM drive, too) neither would acknowledge a CD in the tray "Please insert a disk into drive #:" even with a formatted or recorded audio CD or an OEM data / software CD. After a firmware upgrade to the Plextor and an uninstall / reinstall in Device Manager for both they will both read a CD sometimes but most of the time they will NOT. Some times if the CD was in the drive on reboot they won't read it until the disc is ejected and the tray re closed. Plextor sometimes identifies in Windows Explorer as CD-RW Drive but mostly as CD Drive. Autoplay also executes intermittently. Help will be greatly appreciated.