Everything working ok until last night when I burned off a cd using Burrrn.
Tried to play the cd, and every app I tried (winamp, media player, real player), just kept hanging.
Thought it was a duff copy, so tried an original cd.
Played, but was playing slowly, with clicking noises evident in both channels. Tried a DVD, that also played very slowly and jerky with s**t sound.
Tried a Divx movie on disk, played perfectly, with perfect sound.. Tried playing music and Movies from Hard Drive, and they all played perfectly.
I also started having real problems connecting to the web.
Actions so far: Scanned for everything. Reinstalled modem drivers. Reinstalled via Compaq Application Recovery, all drivers that were preinstalled on purchase.
Edit: CD/DVD drive passed every test with pc doctor. Weird.
Connecting to web ok (for now), CD/DVD drive still the same.
Almost forgot, Windows Explorer kept closing down to "protect my pc".
Dennis what is the exact error message that windows explorer gives, and is there anything showing in the event viewer?
No specific error number or anything, just the standard window that comes up saying "windows has closed this application to protect your pc", and the standard "send error report" etc., the program on this occasion being windows explorer.
I have made one discovery, audio devices don't work in safe mode, and I assume that's normal. Will look in the event viewer.
See if you can try the disc in another CD/DVD it sounds like a hardware problem with your drive, even though it passed the tests.
It You have a TV DVD player or an InCar CD player anything (as long as they support the format) would be worth trying that CD in.
Tried the cd in standalone player, works fine. I take your point that it could still be a hardware fault even though it passed every test, as everything I try to play (original cd's and dvd's) just play very slowly with poor sound, although I'm puzzled why the Divx played ok with ok sound off a dvd.
Tried to do a system restore back about a month. Wouldn't do it, says nothing has changed.
I've installed at least half a dozen apps since then. However, being an optomist, I thought I'd just stick a cd in just in case the gremlin had vacated the premises.
You can guess what happened. Bloody thing played perfectly.
I think I'll still check how long I've had this pc, as something happened, and may happen again. I'm sure it's less than a year old. Still taking an age to connect to the internet, still haven't quite sorted that one yet.
Anyway, thanks Hazel, and firery for the input. Fingers crossed.
Didn't know any of that stuff Andavari, thanks for the tip.
You should also make sure the Primary IDE Channel is set to DMA mode, i.e.; it's for your hard disks.
All you have to do is attempt to copy a damaged CD audio or data and if there's enough errors Windows goes into that awful, pitiful, horrible, PIO mode. PIO mode can cause all sorts of system slowdowns, etc., when for instance ripping an audio CD. The last time my system went into PIO mode for the Secondary IDE Channel even loading another program whilst CD ripping was going on took forever.
In WinXP it can sometimes be rather pesky to get the drives back into DMA mode and sometimes the device has to be right-clicked and Uninstalled in Device Manager followed by a reboot.
You should also make sure the Primary IDE Channel is set to DMA mode, i.e.; it's for your hard disks.
In WinXP it can sometimes be rather pesky to get the drives back into DMA mode and sometimes the device has to be right-clicked and Uninstalled in Device Manager followed by a reboot.
I've got 3 primary and 3 secondary channels, which fortunately were all set to DMA, as I wouldn't have known which of the pesky ones to pick.
I'm not winding you up here, but it's years since I've heard that word. Used to hear that a lot in old westerns, "pesky varmit" etc..
Sadly, words like that have been overwhelmed by the too often used 4 letter varieties.
Can you imagine it in a pub argument: "Are you looking for bother, you pesky varmit!"