ITunes 7.6 "Disc Burner or Software Not Found" - Windows XP

Question

- I have searched far and wide for this answer, but to no avail. Please, if you can, give me some help here, as I spent have the night looking for solutions. -
My wife's iTunes suddenly started giving the error message "disc burner or software not found." There are many multiple posts about this across the net, but no one seems to have an answer. Here are my specs...
Windows XP
HP Laptop, NEC drive
Daemon is NOT installed (never was).
There is no 3rd party burning software (Nero, etc) on the computer (never was).
Windows is fully up to date.
Itunes is fully up to date (installed 7.6 mere hours ago).
The drive is good; CD ripping works.
Under Advanced, iTunes does list the drive, but under the diagonstic, it doesn't come up.
No changes have been made to the system in ages; it just suddenly started giving this error.

Answer 1

Step 3: Clearing upper and lower registry filters
Clear the registry filters for Device Manager error codes 19 , 31 , 32 , or 39 :
Unplug all non-essential external plug and play devices, especially cameras.
Click Start , and enter "regedit " into the Start Search field.
The registry editor window appears.
Select Computer in the main window.
Click File , Export , type a filename that is easy for you to remember, and click Save .
A copy of the registry has saved for back-up purposes to the Documents folder. If problems occur after using these steps, browse to the file and double-click it to restore the registry.
Click the plus sign ( + ) next to the following items in the list:
HKEYLOCALMACHINE
SYSTEM
CurrentControlSet
Control
Class
Select 4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318 . Make sure you have selected this exact key name.
Select the LowerFilters value and press the Delete key. Confirm the deletion by clicking Yes .
Figure 10: Registry Editor: LowerFilters key
If an UpperFilters value is also listed, select UpperFilters in the right window and press the Delete key.
Confirm the deletion by clicking Yes .
Delete all other UpperFilter and LowerFilter values within the 4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318 key if they exist.
Close the registry editor and restart the computer. The disc drive should now be recognized by Windows. You may need to uninstall your disc recording software, restart the computer, reinstall the CD/DVD writing software, and then restart the computer again if the software no longer recognizes the drive (see next step).
PLEASE CHECK THE FOLLOWING LINK FOR MORE INFO:(AT LEAST IT WORKED FOR ME)
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00817052&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en &product=3385415&rule=3099&lang=en#bph07146_filter