pingu Report post Posted March 14, 2006 Hi Sane people of the world. I apologise for starting another topic regarding the DVD Burner, But I really need your help (again) After discovering that our Dell computer did not come with a DVD RW I phoned and emailed Dell Just to be told that it would cost me ?125 for the part we needed, I havent a clue on how to install an internal drive, so the hubby went off yesterday and came back with a FREECOM (Classic) DVD+/-RW Double layer 16x Drive. It says it comes with the following tricks DRIVE SPEED DVD+R9 (double layer) 4X DVD+R 16x CD-R 48X DVD+RW 4X CD-RW 24X DVD-R 16X CD-ROM 48X DVD-RW 4X DVD-ROM 16X (9 in one) Anyway, its an external drive which pops into the USB port, and with the ROXIO software that came with it, we thought we would be able to start our project last night. BUT We are either very silly and are doing something wrong, or something doesnt work. Heres what Happened. Plugged the Drive in (via USB port) Installed software (as intructed) Now at this point the computer was recognising the drive (E -dvd/cd) But we couldnt quite work out how to make it work, We flew through the audio (Cd) part, But when it came to moving our episodes of "lost" onto dvd, it wouldt let us move the file onto the "work area" The files had a huge red circle through them. And by this point the computer has stopped recognising the DVD drive and said it was a CD only drive . So we uninstalled the software, and unplugged the dvd drive, and had a rant, before going back and doing it all again. Again it would recognise it until we tried to burn the files to DVD and then it refused to admit that it had met the drive before and treated it as alien. The other thing that happened is, the drawer wouldnt open, but when i took it out of the USB port it would open. Like i say its either playing silly beggars or we are daft. What do i do????? It says EASY TO INSTALL and CREATE DVD VIDEOS on the box, so why the heck cant i do it??? PLEASE HELP ME (US) Shaz Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Paula Report post Posted March 14, 2006 Youd save a lot of hassle and agro if you just called a pc dr type of bloke to sort it out for you.Take it from someone who knows. Our pc was constantly crashing,alsorts going wrong,easy to install softwear never installed and me and my hubby were trying for 6 months to synchronise up a ipaq thingy.All to no avail. Hey presto we called some techno bloke and it was all sorted within an hour.Everything working at the click of a button.It was amazeing. Yes it cost us ?70 but was worth it. If youre owt like me and my hubby get in someone who knows whats what.We could have saved ourselves 6 months of agro and arguments over what we were doing wrong. After this blokes first call out he gave us his number and now we just phone him up and if its something simple hell talk us through it over the phone at no cost.Its well worth the cash. Good luck. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest hallyscomet Report post Posted March 14, 2006 (edited) Hi Pingu If nobody comes forward with help; I will get my son on here to help. He does this sort of stuff all the time. He is asleep at the moment. So I will check in the morning, that will be tonight your time. gets confusing doesn't it. He is actually installing a new one in his tomorrow too. All the best Hailey Edited March 14, 2006 by hallyscomet Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
phasmid Report post Posted March 14, 2006 What os are you running? If it is XP delete all the software and start again. This time install the drivers first making sure that you install ALL the software as the DVD driver might be seperate. Once you have done that re-boot the pc and then plug in the DVD drive, stick in a DVD and try to play it. You may have a conflict issue with the other DVD drive and may have to tell the PC to use the external DVD drive as the default device for playing DVD's. HTH Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pingu Report post Posted March 14, 2006 Hi Guys and Gals After yet another 'discussion' with hubby, we have decided to take paulas advice and take it to the experts, it will cost us ?42.99 plus ?5.00 fitting, which considering the cost of the external drive (69.99) is very reasonable, but im very dissapointed with DELLS customer support (when you can find the right department). Anyway thanks again for all your help. Hubby is asking me to ask you if you know of a good excuse for taking it back, i say the truth will do (It doesnt work) but he is worried they wont give him a refund and instead offer him a toaster and kettle Great but they wont fit into the pc. You are great thanks again shaz Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Paula Report post Posted March 14, 2006 weve bought stuff in the past for our pc rangeing from mp3 players to alsorts of softwear.None of which weve been able to get to work regardless of the easy to install instructions. Weve always managed to just take the stuff back and just basically weve just said were thick we aint a clue how to get it working weve done all its said and its a no go.Most of the time theyve just refunded the money.So its worth a try. Youll be amazed at the techno bloke you get out hell make it all look so bloomeing simple and stuff.Thing is they try to tell you what there doing and its like talking a foreign language to folks like us so we say dont bother telling us just do it coz we aint a clue. I tell you its cheaper than getting a divorce !!!!!!!!!! My husband bought a ipaq thingy and a tom tom navigator pack thingy.Couldnt set it up for life or money.Yhen he blew up the gps thingy.We nearly killed each other ended up getting a bloke to sort it for us monyths of agro sorted out within ten minutes. He said that none of the so called easy to install set up stuff is not unless youre a pc whizz. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
baddad Report post Posted March 14, 2006 Hi shaz - I will Pm this too in case you don't look back here BEFORE calling an engineer, but will post here too for the benefit of anyone else with similar probs! I SUSPECT you've 'captured' your lost episodes direct to disc as AVI files or something (from an onboard tv card?)... This shouldn't stop you from drag/dropping them to a 'data DVD' but you would not be able to burn them as 'DVD video' and play them back on a standalone player... Firstly, you'd have to make a 'movie' with the AVI files using a moviemaker application (windows XP includes a basic one, which should be good enough for a trial run!) ripping to MPEG and then burning as a DVD from there... This is actually less difficult than it sounds - you just drop the individual files onto a 'timeline' and hit a few buttons when it's all assembled... If I've misunderstood the 'source files' (i.e. they are ripped from DVD to your Hard disc), you may be running into copyright protection problems Try looking at Videohelp.com - you may find some 'walkthroughs' there that'll help you to sort out your problems... Two 'silly' questions: You do have 'DVD' selected in the roxio 'burn' dialogue?? You have put in DVD media and not a blank CD by mistake?? You have selected 'DVD movie files' selected in the burning dialogue, rather than 'Data DVD' or 'Music DVD'??? Hope that helps in some way BD Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
