The Chat Thread

[karlhenning]

1. Is it a cd burner or just a cd-rom drive?  If just a cd-rom go buy a cd burner.
2. Have you tried another brand of cd-r? If yes, go on.  If no, try another brand.
3. Are you using windows?  If yes, go on.  If no, throw your useless mac away.

Thanks!

The answers are:

1.  Our HP has two CD-ROM drives, one is play/read only, the other is read-or-write.

2.  In this recent attempt, I've used three different types of CD, and it's failed with each of them.

3.  Yes, windows.  I am not a Fruitist! 

Should I buy a cd-burner? What do they cost?

[DavidW]

Is the read/write one new?  What happened that made it not work when it worked before?

[Elgarian]

Bringing my minimal experience to bear on this issue, I can say that on the two occasions in the last ... five? ... years when I've encountered a persistent CD-burning problem, a new CD burner has solved it completely. They don't cost much, and they're easy to fit, so it's worth trying, I'd say (if the one that's in now is an old one).

[DavidW]

Yeah it's hard to imagine that Karl was tinkering with advanced settings that made it fubar'd on the software side.  That leaves it as a hardware problem.  I'm the kind of lazy fool that I just plop my pc down in the repair shop and say "please repair or replace the following part."   You can tell that I'm a theorist.

[karlhenning]

Is the read/write one new?  What happened that made it not work when it worked before?

No, this is the internal drive in the PC.  When it was failing before, it was (probably) a conflict between the burning software and Norton.  I say (probably) because the problem did go away when I switched anti-virus programs.

But this is a new type of failure I've never encountered before.

[karlhenning]

Also, the tray has been "kind of funny" lately.  I.e., I tap the "open" button, and the tray doesn't open;  it has the feel of a mechanical failure.

[karlhenning]

Bringing my minimal experience to bear on this issue, I can say that on the two occasions in the last ... five? ... years when I've encountered a persistent CD-burning problem, a new CD burner has solved it completely. They don't cost much, and they're easy to fit, so it's worth trying, I'd say (if the one that's in now is an old one).

Yes, this is the desktop we've had for . . . several years now.  Just on the chance of immediate gratification, I hopped over to Radio Shack, but $100 has to be too much for what I want.  Found a unit on amazon.com for $25 which I think likely to answer my demand.

[DavidW]

Okay yeah buy a new one then.  You might want to play it safe, like me, and go to a pc repair shop and have them install your new drive.  It's not hard, it's just remove case, out with the old, in with the new, but then it's on your head if you mess it up.

[Franco]

If the old drive is more than a few years old, it could be you are using media of too high a speed.  I recently had this problem when I bought some 12X CD-RWs and they would not work.  4X disks work fine.

[Szykneij]

Thanks!

The answers are:

1.  Our HP has two CD-ROM drives, one is play/read only, the other is read-or-write.

2.  In this recent attempt, I've used three different types of CD, and it's failed with each of them.

3.  Yes, windows.  I am not a Fruitist! 

Should I buy a cd-burner? What do they cost?

Karl -- must be a Boston thing because my optical drives were being problematic, too. I just picked up my pc from the repairman. The set-up was similar to yours, so I had both drives replaced with DVD burners. It only cost me about $130, and I'm sure it would have been a lot cheaper if I had the time and inclination to replace them myself. What a huge improvement!

[drogulus]

     Here's an external USB powered CD/DVD burner from Samsung for $59 from TigerDirect:

   

[Dana]

Have you tried taking the bagel out of the CD tray?

[drogulus]

     AND here are the top selling bagel burners from _{(click on egg)}

     All are in the $30 range.

[Opus106]

I wanted to post this in the "Moon Landings" thread, but it's locked , so here it is...


Shocking, yet bloody brilliant: Conspiracy theorist convinces Armstrong that the landings were faked!

[karlhenning]

I wanted to post this in the "Moon Landings" thread, but it's locked , so here it is...


Shocking, yet bloody brilliant: Conspiracy theorist convinces Armstrong that the landings were faked!

I've always said The Onion get their best ideas through keeping abreast of GMG.

. . . after watching a few persuasive YouTube videos, and reading several blog posts . . . yes, it's like Old Home Week at the Mozart Mosh-Pit!

[Dr. Dread]

It'll be a nice day if it doesn't rain.

[karlhenning]

I'm going for a swim.  Very shortly.

[karlhenning]

Alan is one of my favorite 'new GMG-ers'.

[Elgarian]

Well that's clinched it for me.

[Franco]

I wanted to post this in the "Moon Landings" thread, but it's locked , so here it is...


Shocking, yet bloody brilliant: Conspiracy theorist convinces Armstrong that the landings were faked!

If the moon landing was faked, that makes the Apollo 13 mission an even more elaborate conspiracy.