Mac can't locate external CD drive

I have a couple of external CD burners that I use connected to a MacBook Prom with M3 Max chip and they are both flakey with Sonoma. I burn CDs to use doing my radio show. Here at a few things I have found out:

If there is a CD that it can't read in the drive try this. Hold down the mouse or track pad button while you are connecting the drive to the computer, often this will eject a CD that can't be seen or read. First it will try to read it and then spit it out. Another thing to try is shut the computer off with Cd drive connected. Hold the mouse button down while starting up the computer. Y will have to hold it down a long time! I think the finder is spitting it out, so that need to load first.

To burn Cds on my setup I have to connect the CD drive after I have logged into the computer. In System Settings I have under 'CDs & DVDs" I have "Ask What to Do" selected so it asks when I put in a blank CD. When I have it set to open Music it does not work well. When I put in a blank CD is asks what to do with "Open Finder" selected so I just choose "OK". Then I go into "Music" select the playlist I want to burn and choose "Burn Playlist To disk" from the "File" menu. It is still flakey. If the computer looses contact with my player I have to unplug the player and plug it back in. Then start over, both of my drives work fine on my older computer.

I also read an article about in Macworld about a USB bug in Sonoma where you may have to go into

"System Settings->Privacy & Security->Allow Accessories to connect.

They said you may need to disconnect all US devices, change the setting then reboot your computer.

This option is all the way down near the bottom of the list of things in Privacy & Security.

Change the setting to "Always" I think they also said you may need to change the setting to another option and then back to "Always".