DVD-RW drive question

[Badger]

When you boot with the DVD disk inserted, you are reading it with the BIOS.
Windows may not see this.

Go to the Windows Device Manager to see if the DVD drive is enabled.

 

[RickyBobby]

How come this happens? I will be using Windows Vista 32bit Home Premium and
it simply will not recognize any DVD that I put in the DVD drive. I hit
restart and the same thing happens. Then I hit shut down and let it shut
down and then restart it with the power button and the DVD-RW drive and any
disc in it will be read perfectly.

This seems odd and disconcerting.

Thanks to anybody who knows what is what.

 

[RickyBobby]

When you boot with the DVD disk inserted, you are reading it with the
BIOS.
Windows may not see this.

Go to the Windows Device Manager to see if the DVD drive is enabled.

Watson! I think you are on to something!

What may have happened is that I set the BIOS to read the optical drive as
the first boot drive. So if it does not see a bootable disc it refuses to
see that optical drive after the operating system is running. Or something
like that.

I just got me a copy of Windows Vista 64 Bit Home Premium and I was
wondering about something else here.

I got two desktop computers that I put together out of parts from
newegg.com. I sort of messed up a little bit and have the "old" 1.86 CPU in
the better motherboard with the better video card and the "new" 2.5 CPU in
the generic Foxconn microATX motherboard with the one generation older video
card. But to tear them bother apart and then reassemble them with all of
the best bits in one box and all of the second best bits in the other box
would take about four hours.

I can only install the WV64BHP on one machine because I only have one
license and do not cheat.

So that leaves me with three distinct choices

1) Put it on the one with the best MB but second best CPU

2) Put it on the one with the best CPU

3) disassemble and reassemble both boxes to get the bits squared away and
then put it on the best one

I do not do any high power demanding applications so the difference between
the CPU probably does not matter that much in the overall picture.

The difference in the MB is mainly that one has PCI E 2.0 and a 9 series
video card and the other only has PCI-E and an 8 series video card. They
both have 4GB of DDR2 800 memory so there is no difference in that regard.

Decisions, decisions.

Thanks again.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Watson! I think you are on to something!

What may have happened is that I set the BIOS to read the optical drive as
the first boot drive. So if it does not see a bootable disc it refuses to
see that optical drive after the operating system is running. Or
something like that.

I just got me a copy of Windows Vista 64 Bit Home Premium and I was
wondering about something else here.

I got two desktop computers that I put together out of parts from
newegg.com. I sort of messed up a little bit and have the "old" 1.86 CPU
in the better motherboard with the better video card and the "new" 2.5 CPU
in the generic Foxconn microATX motherboard with the one generation older
video card. But to tear them bother apart and then reassemble them with
all of the best bits in one box and all of the second best bits in the
other box would take about four hours.

I can only install the WV64BHP on one machine because I only have one
license and do not cheat.

So that leaves me with three distinct choices

1) Put it on the one with the best MB but second best CPU

2) Put it on the one with the best CPU

3) disassemble and reassemble both boxes to get the bits squared away and
then put it on the best one

I do not do any high power demanding applications so the difference
between the CPU probably does not matter that much in the overall picture.

The difference in the MB is mainly that one has PCI E 2.0 and a 9 series
video card and the other only has PCI-E and an 8 series video card. They
both have 4GB of DDR2 800 memory so there is no difference in that regard.

Decisions, decisions.

Thanks again.

CPU speed may be secondary. Try option 1. If you don't enter a product key
you will have 30 days before you have to activate. Use the system with
option 1 for a few days. Then try option 2, again without entering a
product key. Then pick the configuration you liked best or go to option 3.

 

[Peter Foldes]

See if the following applies

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/939052/en-us

 

[RickyBobby]

CPU speed may be secondary. Try option 1. If you don't enter a product
key you will have 30 days before you have to activate. Use the system
with option 1 for a few days. Then try option 2, again without entering a
product key. Then pick the configuration you liked best or go to option
3.

Your advice was excellent. I installed the nVidia Series 9 cheapo forty
dollar video card and Genuine Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64 Bit
Edition at pretty much the same time. That Windows Vista is a wonder and it
picked up on the onboard audio and wireless networking card immediately. I
did enter the serial number because it asked for it and then Vista activated
itself in about five seconds.

The Windows Experience Index reads like this

Processor 4.1
Memory 5.4
Graphics 4.1
Gaming Graphics 5.0
Primary Hard Disk 5.9

That is more than enough for the relative lightweight stuff that I do which
is mainly internet, Money, Office, and movies using the Windows Media Player
as the movie viewer.

I still have some issue with the DVD-RW drive. When I put in a DVD or CD
the operating system freaks. Since the operating system is brand new and I
could not has possibly gotten a malware off of the internet the problem has
got to be with the drive or the way the Genuine Intel motherboard interfaces
with the drive. I have a number of drives in both PATA and SATA so maybe I
should swap in another one before I button this up. The thing with these
homebuilt PC's is that there always seems to be one more thing.

 

[RickyBobby]

See if the following applies

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/939052/en-us

It is not what is listed there. I formatted the hard drive and installed
Windows Vista Home Premium 64 Bit and the DVD-RW drive misbehaves just the
same with a fresh new install.

It is not that it does not read the disc at all, but just one time correctly
per cold boot.

Every other disc that is inserted will not show up.