OK IT guys/gals.....
First my CD burner eats a bullet, now I don’t have sound….
How do I check and see if these are hardware related problems or some other issue that I most likely can't or don't have the patience to fix??
The CD burner doesn’t recognize anything. It ejects, but no lights or whirling sound that it’s spinning the disk. I ran a find hardware thing off the control panel and it says everything is working OK. BS….it isn’t working. This sucker went down on my a couple months ago.
Now I don’t have any sound. Nothing.
Yes, I’ve tried re-booting, powering it off for ten minutes and staring it again, making sure my conections are right, shaking it vigorously, cussing at it and seriously thinking about throwing it out the window.
It’s a couple years old and has always done what I wanted it to do, which isn’t much really. I didn’t see a need to buy a new one, but maybe I should.
It’s an HP Pavilion 541C.
Have you tried updating your hardware's drivers? That is always the first question tech support asks me whenever I call.
I would suspect hardware if you aren't hearing anything spin up when you insert a disc. The controller in the drive is probably fine and so your OS thinks it is okay, but maybe a motor problem keeps it from spinning up the discs?
You should be able to swap the CD/DVD drive/burner fairly easily so you don't have to replace the entire computer.
Got any recomendations for a new burner?
What about the sound?
Have you double clicked on the little speaker to bring up the volume controls to make sure you don't have anything muted or turned down?
What OS are you running? You could check Device Mangler (Manager) to see if you don't have any red flags. For XP right-click on "My Computer" and select Manage. Then click on Device Manager on the left side. If there are problems, you might see a yello question mark or other warning.
I love NEC drivesTroubleshooting sound can be difficult. First verify if the speakers and interconnects do in fact work. Then you can go into the control panel and under sounds try highlighting some of them and click the play button. Especially try picking some of the really quick sounds like 'default beep'. The play icon should change pretty quickly. If it takes a few seconds to go from play to stop to play (icon) then it could be an OS or driver issue.
Either way, try uninstalling and installing updated sound drivers couldn't hurt either.
BenQ makes some absolute top notch DVD burners. I went round and round finding a good dual layer burner, and BenQ was at the top of the list consistantly. Granted, that was about 9 months ago, but I would still think that they would still be making great products today.
My cheap IOMagic DVD player/burner from CompUSA works just fine for my HTPC.
I'm quite happy with this Samsung from NewEgg.
Samsung w/ LightScribeNice and quiet, which makes it easier on the ol ears. I hate computer noise.
And I've had a lot of success with LG drives (readers & burners)
Bren R.
Oh great…..five choices so far. Heck fellas, I don’t know squat about this stuff. Help a computer idiot out….
How about if y’all narrow down my choices a little….like what speed, type, ease of installation. Oh, it has to match the HP’s grey color.
Or better yet (just to show proof of how lazy I am), how about a link to one I can just order. Might as well be looking at sound card options too in case that dam thing is dead too. I know, I’m pushing it now…..
Well mdrew i can only add to the list. I've used yamaha's in the past that lasted forever. I've got a Plextor that cost me double any other burners but it has been solid, fast and silent. I recently bought a Pioneer dual layer dvd burner and although it is more noisy than the Plexy, it was only $38 Cdn, and it is fast.
I'll put in a good word for the LG burners as well. I've got two that have been bullit proof.
I also have a Pioneer DVD-ROM that runs hot and only reads about half the time. (Although, I'm told that a firmware update will fix the reading problem)
i have had good luck with Lite On Burnerstry looking at
www.newegg.com
All the choices above are good! I myself have several NEC's and I love them! Cheap, fast. I have yet to make a coaster with them.
Lite On is the only brand I would actually tell people to steer well clear of. Over the years we sold a brand of computer here at my company and 10 out of every 10 Lite On Cdroms went bad or just sucked period.
I've also read some articles that did some tests on burners and the Lite On's didn't burn correctly, its been a while but something about how they don't do it in a way that will make the disk last as long as it should.
All those experiences were before DVD writers got big so maybe its changed, but there are so many other good brands out there I won't take a chance.
