Very Important Info About DVDWriters

[johnnymk]

I installed Roxio 6 on my computer with Windows XP and a DVD+/-Writer.

I put a rewritable DVD in the tray, started the program and after a few moments, it stated that there was a failure to communicate with the writer.

So I tried the eject button...Nothing. I right clicked the writer in My Computer for eject..nothing.

I took a small paper clip to eject the disc. It worked but made a terrible racket as it opened.

I restarted the computer. After the WinXP window appeared for about 30 seconds, I got a black screen. I tried SafeMode..same thing. Everything totally freezes!

I figured..let's disconnect the IDE cable and power from the writer and reboot.

Bingo, everything worked. I then reconnected the writer and it also works again. Really weird!!

Maybe this will help someone if they ever get a black screen in XP.

[Bires]

Most likely you had *some* of the IDE pins not in good contact with the cable. I've had computers fail to start simply because the cable wasn't plugged in as far as it should be on one side of the IDE interface.

[johnnymk]

Most likely you had *some* of the IDE pins not in good contact with the cable. I've had computers fail to start simply because the cable wasn't plugged in as far as it should be on one side of the IDE interface.

I don't think so. I had just made a successful burn minutes earlier using a DVD+R disc, not a rewritable disc. I think that the rewritable disc had to be formatted, and Roxio couldn't write to it, so it froze.