tech support help

Not Sir Phobos · Post by **Not Sir Phobos** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 6:34 pm

I have a video burned onto a disc, I know this video is not a bad burn because right after my friend burned it he opened it from the disc and played it on his laptop.

Now I can't get it to play on my computer, as a matter of fact when you put it in the cd drive it just keeps spinning, you can hear the cd-rom motor whiring up and down and you can hear the lazor servos zipping back and forth. You cannot open the cd from the "my computer" menu. I have tried this on my wife's 08 dell inspirion laptop. On my custom computer and on my roomate's custom computer as well. I even tried it in the DVD player to round out my possibilities.

What is going on here?!?!?

Oh yeah my friend's computer that burned the cd is a megabook laptop.

transmet · Post by **transmet** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 7:27 pm

Most likely the burning program didn't finish closing off the disc properly - let me guess...Nero? I'd also guess that it worked on his computer because the vid is stored on his hard drive (most likely under the same extension name) and therefore recognizes it.

Regardless, this is why it's best to invest in a zip-drive. Much more reliable.

Not Sir Phobos · Post by **Not Sir Phobos** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 9:17 pm

He used a program called "DVD solutions", but he does have nero, he did not use nero for this burn.

miz ducky · Post by **miz ducky** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 2:15 am

I remember late last year, I heard a lot about disks burned on Vista won't open on XP (or was it the other way around). Any chance that is the case in this instance?

zerospace · Post by **zerospace** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 7:53 am

transmet wrote:Most likely the burning program didn't finish closing off the disc properly - let me guess...Nero? I'd also guess that it worked on his computer because the vid is stored on his hard drive (most likely under the same extension name) and therefore recognizes it.

Regardless, this is why it's best to invest in a zip-drive. Much more reliable.

This is a very good possibility. The only other is that there is something wrong with your drive, but if it reads other discs, then that is unlikely.

Zip drives are extinct and therefore tough to come by these days

. If anyone actually wants one, we have 3 sitting around collecting dust!

transmet · Post by **transmet** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 11:15 am

zerospace wrote:Zip drives are extinct and therefore tough to come by these days . If anyone actually wants one, we have 3 sitting around collecting dust

Jump drive, memory sticks are actually still all around these days (at least out here in L.A.).

I recommend Lexar... and $40 bucks will get you 8 gigs on ebay.

zerospace · Post by **zerospace** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 11:20 am

Some info that would be helpful:

Was this burned in standard DVD video format? Is it some other type of video file? This will make a huge difference in what is capable of playing it. Newer drives/OSes can often read discs that were not closed properly, where older (and sometimes cheaper) drives cannot. Also, many standard home DVD players cannot read computer-burned discs--this can be due to copy protection among other reasons.

Operating system has really nothing to do with whether or not another machine can read a disc it created. Vista is capable of burning and closing a disc, but you have to tell it to close the disc!

Not all DVD drives are created equal--if your computer is a custom-build, then you might need to consider the age of your DVD drive. I've also had fickle DVD drives that don't like some discs that they should be able to read

.

Transmet: A zip drive is an old magnetic drive made by Iomega years ago... what you are calling a jump drive has a more generic name these days: USB drives. These rely on flash memory. While this is sometimes more reliable than a hard disk, they are vulnerable to a different ailment: memory corruption from too many reads/writes.

There are also such things as micro drives which are mini hard disks.

Not Sir Phobos · Post by **Not Sir Phobos** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 11:34 am

I love flashdrives.

transmet · Post by **transmet** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 2:04 pm

zerospace wrote:Transmet: A zip drive is an old magnetic drive made by Iomega years ago... what you are calling a jump drive has a more generic name these days: USB drives. These rely on flash memory. While this is sometimes more reliable than a hard disk, they are vulnerable to a different ailment: memory corruption from too many reads/writes.

Your right... I'm old. Just got into an argument the other day trying to explain what a floppy drive is/was to a 20-something-year-old and that "floppy" actually meant that back in the day.

Anyway, I've never had a problem with my flash-drives as long as I deleted the files on them before reformatting (and I use them almost every day).

buma · Post by **buma** » Fri Nov 21, 2008 2:28 pm

it sounds like you're trying to read an incompatible drive format. Is your DVD reader at +/- reader? or is it only one or the other? If it's a -R only reader and you put a +R disc into it, you will have this problem (and probably vice versa, but I've no experience with a +R reader).

Odds are you have a -R reader. Check your disc and see if it states it's a +R. If so, I'd say it's a safe bet that this is your problem.