Nero 5.5 v Windows XP

[amanoffewwords]

Background:

Laptop: P4 1.7Ghz, 256Mb Ram, 40GB HDU, Win XP Professional - Matsu****a combo drive CD-RW/DVD

Desktop: P4 2.6Ghz, 256Mb Ram, ??GB HDU (prob. 20), Win Xp Home, Sony CDRW drive, separate Nec DVD drive

Both with Service Pack 1 and x number of security updates since.

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Both were taking ages to copy small amounts of information to brand new CD-RW disks - we timed it - a 64k file took 3 minutes - this was using the Windoze built-in CD burning software. No surprises there since it's c..p anyway.

So function disabled on both machines (via My Computer) and Nero 5.5 added including latest InCD - freshly downloaded from Nero's stall on the web.

The laptop now records 64k files faster than you can blink - in fact a 14Mb file took less than a minute.

Our rejoicing was short-lived since the desktop simply does not recognise any disks that we feed it. InCD goes right up to the point were you would like to tell it whether to perform a quick or full format -- however the choices are greyed out and the program crashes when 'next' is selected.

- we know the desktop CDRW drive itself was working as it was on a Win 98 machine less than 24hrs ago and was carefully removed and switched to a different case by yours truly
- we have DMA switched on and we checked all drivers are current - we even removed the CDRW from the system lists and re-added via 'add-remove hardware' to force a registry refresh
- the CDRW drive itself is on the compatibility list on Nero's site
- the drive can read pre-recorded CDs such as Audio and progs
- it still functions well as a coffee cup holder

Given that:

- the general specs and program levels between the two machines are very similar
- all possible avenues we can think off have been explored and, worse still:
- the answer does not appear to be on Goggle :eek: ,

I hereby seek assistance from anyone who might have had the misfortune of encountering a similar situation and beg them to put me out of my (our) misery by sharing the solution on this most marvellous forum.

Thanks,

amofw

[Keef]

Been there...

In the end, I junked the Yamaha CDRW and bought an HP one, and now use the HP software which writes exceeding swiftly and with no hiccups whatsoever. The problem was the Yamaha, not Nero.

Nero is good, but intuitive it ain't (not for a thicky like me, anyway).

One thing I did find was that Nero had to be told to CLOSE the CD, and that other drives couldn't read one that wasn't closed.
Leaving it open was clever, because it allowed continuous backups - but it confused Windows (and me).

Might help, might not.

Agree the MS stuff is rubbish. The HP is excellent, but I don't know if it works with non-HP drives. It can be downloaded from the HP website (or from a link from there, I forget now).

[ORAC]

Try this. (http://club.cdfreaks.com/archive/topic/52288.html).

[amanoffewwords]

Thanks ORAC, I had come across that site but...since I'm doing this for a client I really don't want to go down the path of fiddling about with the registry and what-not...it's bound to end in failure. :ouch:

So, I might go down Keef's path and replace the drive - I have an HP too, and save some small issues when I upgraded to Win 2K it has worked well so far.

Decisions, decisions, decisions... :confused: