First of all, let me apologize for all the mistakes I'm making while posting my question. This is my second time to post and I'm still new at computer terminology. I don't have a website, I've never blogged and I just recently learned what a "thread" is.
I guess my first question here is, How do I determine if my problem is related to hardware or software.
I've had my computer (Vista Premium) for a little over a year. Since there is so much to learn, I've devoted most of my time to learning just the basics of computers and while I have burned one or two CDs and DVDs, I decided to wait untill I had learned more basics before really getting into burning.
The initial burning I did turned out fine. But now that I want to get into it seriously, I find that somewhere along the line some problems have developed with my burning and I don't know just where they started.
The first problem I noticed was that if I burned an audio CD, on playback it was difficult for the player to recognize the first track. The slider bar would go half way through the song before it would start playing. I found that I could move the slider bar back and the player would pick up the song from there. However, if I moved the bar all the way to the beginning of this first song, it would not play.
I also noticed that some of the rest of the songs were very poor quality with a lot of "static sounds" in them. So, the full first song is there, it is just not being read properly by the player.
Now, I've found that the two DVDs I burned earlier will not play properly in the "E" drive. Rather than starting to play automatically, I have to open WMP and promp the video to play. When it does play, the sound is fine, but the picture is nothing but a screen full of multi colored pixels. I could get DVDs to play properly in the "F" drive, but while testing that drive for this question, I find that the "F" drive now wont even recognize there's a disc in it.
I had K-lite full installed during this time of the player behaving properly and when it was not. I read a lengthy, rather comprehensive article on the Internet that advised against having this codec in WMP. I removed it, but the player will still not play as it should. I also tried the player with and without the Xvid codecs. That doesn't seem to make a difference either.
The only other thing I know to add is that this problem is certainly not related to a lot of use or wear because as I said, I have burned only four or five times since I've had the computer. Also, CDs recorded on other computers will play fine from the biginning on mine, but the auto play feature does't work all the and I usually have to prompt them to play.
If anyone can tell a novice like me just where to start troubleshooting, I would certainly appreciate it. Also, If this question is not posted in the proper forum, please let me know.
Thanks
