Need some help burning a CD

[Cerek the Barbaric]

I'm trying to "burn" my very first music CD on my PC and I'm having some problems.

I use WindowsXP. I've downloaded the music files I want into a Playlist and arranged them in the order I want. I insert the blank CD into my CDRW drive and then hit "Copy all files to audio CD".

This opens Windows MediaPlayer and lists all the songs. I then hit the "Copy Music" button and MediaPlayer begins converting the files from MP3 to audio format. So far, everything works fine.

The problem occurs once all the files are converted....MediaPlayer goes back to the first file to begin copying it, but it also EJECTS the blank CD - which causes the whole operation to literally "lock down". Even when I re-insert the CD, I still get a message stating that MediaPlayer is "not responding". It just sits there and does nothing. [img]graemlins/verysad.gif[/img]

What am I doing wrong? and how can I fix it?

[Animal]

A couple of things come to mind:

1. The CD's not blank, or is damaged in some way.

2. Windows Media may need a plug in to burn to audio CD, but I'm not sure on that since I don't use it.

Do you have Nero or Easy CD? They are far superior to Windows Media Player for any kind of burning duties.

EDIT: You also have to be logged on as an administrator to do any kind of burning in XP.

[ 03-02-2003, 09:27 PM: Message edited by: Animal ]

[Cerek the Barbaric]

Originally posted by Animal: A couple of things come to mind: 1. The CD's not blank, or is damaged in some way. 2. Windows Media may need a plug in to burn to audio CD, but I'm not sure on that since I don't use it. Do you have Nero or Easy CD? They are far superior to Windows Media Player for any kind of burning duties. EDIT: You also have to be logged on as an administrator to do any kind of burning in XP.

1. The CD is definitely blank and is brand new. Still could have a flaw in it somewhere though.

2. I do have NERO, but the PC is automatically defaulting to MediaPlayer and I can't figure out how to "pull up" Nero. Any suggestions there would be great.

3. I am always the only user that is actually "logged in"...so I should be listed as the administrator. I know at least part of the problem is that I'm still trying to get use to acessing applications in XP as opposed to Win98.

How can I access the Nero CD Burn software through XP. There isn't an icon on my desktop and it doesn't show up under Program Files (at least that I could see). But when I checked "Add/Remove Hardware" it is there.

Once again, any advice is appreciated.

BTW, the album I'm trying to "create" is an alternative version of the Beatle's 1 album. There are some songs I couldn't believe were left off and there were some on there I didn't care for.

My version will be called Beatles Other 1. [img]graemlins/biglaugh.gif[/img]

[Sir Krustin]

Is there a shortcut in your toolbar? Otherwise, try right clicking the icon for the blank cd in the drive.

edit> do a file search for nero. when you find it, create a shortcut on the desktop/toolbar.

[ 03-02-2003, 10:48 PM: Message edited by: Sir Krustin ]

[slicer15]

Are you using cd-writer? Or can media player copy music to cd's without a writer?
PS: This is not any help i'm trying to offer, I'm just curious. Oh! Sorry if that sounded rude! [img]smile.gif[/img] No offence meant!

[Harkoliar]

what dont you uninstall and reinstall nero again? maybe you may find out where it went. also, only have one cd-writer program installed in your computer. if there is more than one, there is a tendency that it will create conflict software. (except for win media but im using win98) im using both nero and media player.

[Earthdog]

Unplug the unit from its power cord to the outlet. Touch bare metal on the case to dissipate any static electricity you might have built up on your person. Once you're grounded you can tinker inside the case.

Make sure that your CD-RW is the MASTER on the SECONDARY IDE channel. Now make sure that Your CD-ROM is SLAVE on the PRIMARY IDE channel.

Boot up. Go to Start, then Programs, then Ahead Nero. You may have to click the DOWN ARROW to expose all programs that havent been recently used. Once you find Ahead Nero you can Create an Audio CD. Use the wizard to do this. Now all you have to do is look at the box on the Right and click away until you're in the directory that your music is stored in. Drag and drop the files you want to burn into the box on the left. BURN is the 8th button from the left.

If you wanted to burn from cd to cd use the COPY a CD selection from the wizard.

Now that you have the CD-ROM and CD-RW on seperate channels you can COPY ON THE FLY. This is much quicker than making an ISO (image) and saving it to your hard drive.

One more bit of advice: Hit control alt delete and make sure that you dont have ANYTHING open in your Task Manager but Explorer and Taskbar. Windows requires both in order to operate. Shut down either one and the computer will reboot. Anything else left open will be sucking up your CPUs processing power and very well may cause Buffer Underruns, wasting a cd as the burn will fail.

As someone said before: if you still cant find it, uninstall it and re-install it, then you should find it in Programs in the Start Menu.

How fast is your burner? Age? What Operating System are you using?

[ 03-05-2003, 08:15 AM: Message edited by: Earthdog ]

[/)eathKiller]

my windows XP burns CDs with Windows Media Player from MP3s just fine, though if all else fails you can open the CD on "My Computer" and then drag and drop the mp3s into it and say make it an audio CD through windows.

[Cerek the Barbaric]

[img]graemlins/bouncered2.gif[/img] S U C C E S S ! ! ! [img]graemlins/bouncered2.gif[/img]

Well, mostly successful anyway. I did find and access Ahead Nero and created my very first CD from downloaded MP3 files. But I had one small problem. I had
"drug" 26 files into Nero to be copied onto the CD. According to the blue bar at the bottom, there should have been plenty of room for all 26....yet only 25 were copied.

I put the CD back in and tried to Delete the files, but it won't let me do that. I was going to simply erase all files off of the CD, making it "blank" once more, then try the whole process over. However, it will NOT allow me to Delete ANY of the files.

Is it possible to erase these files? Could I try to just insert the one file that got left off? If so, could I "move it" to the desired location on the playlist?

Again, any and all suggestions are welcomed.

[the mighty stamar]

If its a cd r disc its permanent, no erasing of any sort.

If its a cd rw disc, it has to be entirely erased before anything can be added and then a new 'image' created with your add on.

Either way no, cds dont work like floppies.