When attempting to burn a CD through Windows Media Player, a message appears claiming no CD writer is available. So I instead need to make the CD through Nero, which works perfectly. Updating Windows Media Player to version 10 and then 11 has not resolved the issue.

Since the CD writer works correctly using a third-party CD burning program (Nero) this indicates that the CD writer drive is installed and functioning correctly. In this situation, the most likely cause of the issue is that the Windows XP in-built CD burning facility has been disabled. Windows XP has a feature which allows CDs to be written through Windows XP, without the need to use any third-party software. To do this, you can simply drag files onto the CD drive in My Computer or Windows Explorer and those files can be written to a CD. However, this in-built CD burning function can be disabled. Windows Media Player relies upon the Windows XP in-built CD burning feature and, if this feature is disabled, Windows Media Player is not able to write CDs. To check whether the in-built CD writing function is enabled, open My Computer or Windows Explorer then right-click on the CD writer/burner drive and select “Properties”. In the window that appears, click the “Recording tab”. Make sure that “Enable CD recording on this drive” is enabled (ticked) and click OK to save and close.