Sonic DLA Installation clobbers Control Panel | Performance and maintenance

[Peter R. Fletcher]

The subject says it all! Installing Sonic's DLA software (latest
retail version purchased from website) appears to proceed withou
problems, but, when it is installed, XP's Control Panel hangs when you
try to access "Performance and Maintenance" - the right hand side of
the screen appears normally but the menu on the left hand does not
appear and none of the links on the right hand side do anything.
Closing the window gets you the usual "this program is not responding"
box, and "End Now", gets you back to the normal Windows screen.
Uninstalling DLA puts everything right (except, of course, that you
don't have the DLA functionality). The problem is absolutely
reproducible with repeated installation/uninstallation of the DLA
software.

Hardware is Asus A7N8X Deluxe with Athlon XP 2600+ and two 256Meg
sticks of premium PC 3200 Memory running in Dual-Channel mode, booting
from a 160 GB SATA disk. DVD RW is Sony 510A on the secondary channel.

OS is XP Professional with all current patches.

I don't have any particularly wierd hardware or software (except
Norton AV) installed, and I am not having any other identifiable
hardware or software problems.

Apparently appropriate Google Searches have been non-productive,
Sonic's support site does not recognise DLA as "supportable" software,
and their "Contact Us" link is currently broken. Has anyone any other
ideas?

Please respond to the Newsgroup, so that others may benefit from the exchange.
Peter R. Fletcher

 

[The Golden Brett]

I've been having the exact same problem! My System is a Dell
Dimension 4600, XP Home, Intel Pentium IV 2.8GHz, 512MB DDR SDRAM,
McAfee VirusScan, & TEAC DVW58E 8X DVD+R/RW. With Sonic DLA
installed, All XP Control Panel menu items hang (except "Add/Remove
Programs" for some reason).

I've tried disabling XP's built-in CD writing program. I've also
tried shutting down DLA's running process using both Task Manager and
"msconfig". So far nothing has worked. I've done numerous Google
searches and tried both Sonic & Dell Support to no avail. Sonic
doesn't support DLA, and the Dell support techies (India) seem to
think Windows System Restore is the cure-all for everything.

If anyone out there has any ideas, please share them. Thanks!

Brett

 

[xvcxbvb]

Sonic DLA came preinstalled on my Dell Dimension 2400. I had so much
trouble when I first recieved the computer with the CDRW drive hanging
with the drive light flashing when I booted the computer. The Dell
Techs could not help. I eventually uninstalled the software and
everything was fine. I think maybe it conflicts with WinXP's built in
DLA software, but disabling one or the other didn't help. Really there
is no reason to even have it if you are using XP. I don't know why Dell
would have installed it.

 

[GTS]

Sonic DLA is a packet driver that lets you format a CDRW media and use it
like a big floppy drive, meaning that files can be copied directly to it,
deleted, edited, etc. That capability is not built into XP. XP can be
used to burn CD (or CDRW) with a set of read only files.

DLA is preinstalled on many Dells and HP and the type of problem you've had
with it is not common. If you don't care about packet driving capability
then just leave it uninstalled. If you do care, I would suggest complaining
to Dell and asking for 2nd level support or a supervisor. Their failure to
resolve the problem is unacceptable with a newly purchased machine.

 

[Peter R. Fletcher]

The latest version of Sonic's DLA software seems to have fixed the
problem that I originally reported.

Sonic DLA is a packet driver that lets you format a CDRW media and use it
like a big floppy drive, meaning that files can be copied directly to it,
deleted, edited, etc. That capability is not built into XP. XP can be
used to burn CD (or CDRW) with a set of read only files.

DLA is preinstalled on many Dells and HP and the type of problem you've had
with it is not common. If you don't care about packet driving capability
then just leave it uninstalled. If you do care, I would suggest complaining
to Dell and asking for 2nd level support or a supervisor. Their failure to
resolve the problem is unacceptable with a newly purchased machine.

Please respond to the Newsgroup, so that others may benefit from the exchange.
Peter R. Fletcher

 

[Peter R. Fletcher]

The latest version of Sonic's DLA software seems to have fixed the
problem that I originally reported.

Sonic DLA is a packet driver that lets you format a CDRW media and use it
like a big floppy drive, meaning that files can be copied directly to it,
deleted, edited, etc. That capability is not built into XP. XP can be
used to burn CD (or CDRW) with a set of read only files.

DLA is preinstalled on many Dells and HP and the type of problem you've had
with it is not common. If you don't care about packet driving capability
then just leave it uninstalled. If you do care, I would suggest complaining
to Dell and asking for 2nd level support or a supervisor. Their failure to
resolve the problem is unacceptable with a newly purchased machine.

Please respond to the Newsgroup, so that others may benefit from the exchange.
Peter R. Fletcher

 

[Ross Moody]

What version was your OEM Sonic? I just purchased a new Sony that came with
several flavors of OEM Burn software. Sonic Record Now ver 7.21 is one of
them. In the read me file item 13 States" Drive Letter Access (DLA) is not
shipped with all versions of Sonic Record Now!". I must not have it as I
have't had the problem you described yet or my version has the fix? I am
more familiar with Roxio Easy Creator 5 which I had on my old Dell that I
have Retired. Maybe I made a mistake????
Ross

 

[Alex Nichol]

I think maybe it conflicts with WinXP's built in
DLA software, but disabling one or the other didn't help. Really there
is no reason to even have it if you are using XP. I don't know why Dell
would have installed it.

DLA is to do packet writing. true drag and drop of individual files
direct to a formatted CD-RW disk, unlike XP burning which is not doing
more than stash files to burn later in a batch. DLA is in my view the
best of these packages, and works fine in XP, but you need the internal
burning OFF. See more at http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpcd.htm

 

[Peter R. Fletcher]

The DLA Version # is 4.90.

What version was your OEM Sonic? I just purchased a new Sony that came with
several flavors of OEM Burn software. Sonic Record Now ver 7.21 is one of
them. In the read me file item 13 States" Drive Letter Access (DLA) is not
shipped with all versions of Sonic Record Now!". I must not have it as I
have't had the problem you described yet or my version has the fix? I am
more familiar with Roxio Easy Creator 5 which I had on my old Dell that I
have Retired. Maybe I made a mistake????
Ross

Please respond to the Newsgroup, so that others may benefit from the exchange.
Peter R. Fletcher