I installed EAC & LAME 3.93.1 on my Windows 98SE machine this weekend and have been beating my head against the wall ever since. When I select all of the tracks on a cd to convert them to MP3s, EAC will convert the first track to a .wav file then LAME will open up and convert the .wav file to an MP3. When it is time for the next (2nd) track to be converted to a .wav file nothing will happen and EAC will freeze up.
When I enter "close program" it indicates that EAC is "not responding." All of the programs on my computer are now frozen and fail to respond and I have to crash the computer and restart it. The first track burns fine all the way from a .wav to an .mp3 but as soon as the DOS LAME screen closes - and its time to read track 2 - Kapow - everything freezes up. This happens every time that I try to burn more than one track at a time to MP3.
Interestingly enough, I can use EAC to burn all of the tracks on a CD to .wav files with no freezing up problem. Then I can use WinLame to convert all of the CD .wav tracks to MP3s. I would like to use the EAC/LAME combination to burn CDs to MP3s however because it appears to be faster then the EAC/WinLame combination.
I am not very technically proficient on the computer but can figure out basic things and follow clear instructions. For example, I can edit a command line in a "box" in the EAC program but don't know how to go deeper than that (like editing DOS). Also, I have tried everything I can think of or learn from the net to fix this problem and have found no forums discussing it. I turned off all Cd player "autoplays" on my computer and downloaded the Adaptec ASPI32.exe file to try to stop the crashing. Any help will be greatly appreciated as I am a music fanatic and audiohobbyist and am trying to load up my new IPOD with some of my many CDs spanning all genres. Thanks.
P.S. I am using a Digital Research CD-RW 52x24x52 Drive, Model D522452 (ATAPI 52X24).

Rip the CD as wav files -- but don't have LAME encode them. Close EAC and use LAME.exe outside of EAC to see if that fixes the problem.

If that doesn't work under EAC Options > Tools make sure you have a check mark next to "On extraction, start external compressors queued in the background" and then make sure that the number you select is 1 for "Use # simultaneous external compressor thread(s). Limiting the amount of LAME.exe's to only one running may fix your problem. If you still have problems make sure there is a check mark next to "Do not open external compressor window."

Hey, thank you, Andavari! Your advice solved my problem. Checking the box for "On extraction, start external compressors queued in the background" with number "1" selected for "Use # simultaneous external compressor thread(s) did the trick. Thanks, Again