Problem ripping CDs

Has anyone found a workaround for the following problems?

On a new PC running Kubuntu 7.04 (Feisty) with a NEC  DV-5700A DVD 
player/CD burner

1) K3b first off pops up a window when the program is started saying:
"System configuration problem" in the title bar
"system configuration problem...one problem"
"No CD/DVD writer found.
K3b did not find an optical writing device in your system.  Thus, you 
will not be able to burn CDs or DVDs.  However, you can still use other 
K3b features like audio track txtraction or audio transcoding or ISO9660 
image creation."
Clicking the "close" box makes the window go away.
The problem here is that the NEC DV5700A _is_ a CD burner, and a DVD reader.
I have not been able to locate where to change permissions so that the 
program recognizes that fact.  Doing so through
K3b>Settings>Devices does not allow me to change the device, writes CD-R 
and Writes CD-RW are both set to "no" and slightly greyed out. Under 
Writer devices, "none" is shown. Can anyone suggest a way to make this 
recognize the device as a writer?

2) When starting to rip an audio CD using K3b, the CD is loaded. (Audio 
CD is shown as the medium in the device on the left pane.)
The drawer is closed, and cddb recognition starts.  (Sometimes it fails 
due to server connection error,
sometimes the data is retrieved, but that isn't the problem.)

Once the "start ripping" button is selected in the upper left hand 
corner of the right pane, another window pops up, allowing you to select 
where to store the ripped files.  Once you've done this (example 
//home/wayne/music in my case), and clicked "Ok", that window 
disappears, and the button on the lower right "start ripping" is clicked 
a pop up box appears:"Device in use" in the title bar and under that:
"Device '_NEC _ DV-5700A' is already in use by other applications 
(kio_audio.cd, kio_audio.cd)
It is highly recommended to quit those before continuing. Otherwise K3b 
might not be able to fully access the hardware."
"Hint: Sometimes shutting down an application does not happen instantly. 
  In that case you might have to use the 'Check again' button."

underneath which are three buttons (L-R) ("Check again", "Quit the other 
applications", and "continue".

Is kio_audio.cd a needed application and should it be left alone, or can 
it be disabled in order to allow K3b to continue?  I've been clicking
"Quit the other application" and following through on that in order to 
make K3b function, but there should be a way to avoid having that 
appear.  Note: clicking the "continue" button also works.

Can anyone help?

Many thanks in advance,
WJS

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