In my XP days I burnt photos to a CD with Nero.

I have Vista now and I gather there are problems with Nero - and the inbuilt 'burn' within Vista seems ridiculously slow.

What do the gurus use, please?

TP

And as TP has brought the subject up, I'm trying to burn some MP3s to CD using Windows media player. The first album I want to transfer is about 37 Mb, the second one a similar size, so on a 700 Mb CD I should get in the region of 15-20 albums, Media player tells me that after the first album there's only room for a few more tracks before I need a new CD. I'm pretty sure the fault lies somewhere in Media Player but I can't work out what it is. Anyone got any clues? The tracks are all recorded at 128 kbps.

SC

It sonds as though it is trying to convert them to normal CD format.

Try opening the CD in Windows Explorer to see what is actually being burnt.

I think the problem may lie with the fact that music on a CD album is in an uncompressed format.

The .cda files are just 1k long and are pointers to where the physical files are on the disk. On the other hand .mp3 files are stand alone files and are heavily compressed. That is why the quality of a .mp3 will be poorer than a .cda due the 'lossy' comresssed format. The .cda files on a CD are also poorer quality than that of a real old fashioned LP due to the sampling that occurs.

It may be that if you copy CD to CD with tqo drives then you will retain the quality. Otherwise the transition from CD to .mp3 and back to CD again will lose quality.

It all depends on what you want to do with the files. If you want to play them on a CD player then burning them is the right way as .mp3 files wont play that way.

A CD is actually full of .wav files which are uncompressed. That is why a CD-R will say something like 60 minutes of music. But it is in uncompressed .wav format.

If you genuinely want a CD full of .mp3 files then put your CD in the drive and in the file manager just copy them all directly to the CD as if it was to another folder. Then you will get a huge number on the CD. It will just be of use as backup and you won't be able to play them.

Ah but I want to play them in my car - I have one CD slot which plays MP3 files. I think there's something wrong with my system really because it then wouldn't copy them - tried to, then said there's something wrong with the CD - however i managed to burn some .wav files earlier (onto a different disc).

edit I decided to try to copy some files to CD using Explorer and it said "there is an error in the writing process. The disc you have attempted to write to may no longer be usable."

Sounds like there's something fundamentally wrong with my DVD RW drive

When you look at the cost of a DVD RW drive then it is hardly surprising that they go wrong.

I suppose it's buy, remove the old, put in the new, boot up & get it installed - is it that simple?

Thinking about this one:

Pioneer dual layer DVD RW drive

I'm running XP home.

"When you look at the cost of a DVD RW drive then it is hardly surprising that they go wrong."

That may be my problem. The fitted RW drive seemed to want over a day to write my jpgs. I have an old external TDK one and that did the job in about ten minutes - using the Vista burn facility.

TP

The Vista file copying system is certainly slower than XP but it is not that slow. I think that it tends to get the blame for a whole load of other problems.

I could write and veryfy a 4.5 GB ISO file under Vista in less than an hour so it could well be the drive.

Why don't you write all the files to a temporary ISO or RNG image file and then try burning that to the disk?

Not sure if anyone can help with this problem, I have a feeling it might be a little too complex to solve via a bb, but I'll explain anyway. I've just invested in a vodaphone mobile broadband stick which should run off 3G or GPRS. I had a few problems installing but eventually managed to sort of get it up and running, however, the software reported 'no device' on a regular basis, then it would find the device and try to reconnect. Recoonection lasts only a short while before dropping out. I've checked Device Manager whilst the programme is running and it constantly jumps between working ok and not connected. I've tried different USB ports with no improvement. I've ruled out the lack of a signal and the stick itself. I think I have a software or hardware conflict but have no idea how to resolve. I recall some years ago I had a similar problem when trying to use a nokia phone as a modem on the same pc (Sony vaio) the same phone worked fine with a dell. Grateful for any advice.

Pth

Evening pth,

I have one of them there sticks and marvelous they are too.I didn't have any problems at all,which is not much help to you.

It will pick up 3G first and if not available then GPRS which you should be able to pick up just about anywhere.

It sounds like a similar issue that I have with a WD Passport (port.Hard drive) and my USB ports which I keep meaning to sort as it works on my other machines.

Is it for a laptop if so then have you tried it on another PC?

Just to add that when the WD Passport (used to work in this machine) is plugged into any USB port it's as though it's getting kicked out by the comp.Keeps making a 'dunk dunk' noise every 10 seconds and in d/manager the screen updates itself in time to the noise.

The only sensible advice found on the internet was to get rid of all the USB programs and reload as required but I haven't tried this and would not suggest that you do either.I'm sure one of the experts here will have the answer.........

Thanks Mick, sounds like a similar problem, although I re-booted the of again last night and it found the stick but struggled to access the Internet. I also used the troubleshooter on msn which got stuck when checking the Ports option

Do you have WIFI. Maybe turn WIFI off as it might be trying to connect to WIFI and overridding the Voda stick

One other thing,the VOD assistant said that on the very odd occasion problems relating to registering have been known.She suggested removing the sim card and putting it in a mobile phone to register and then try it back in usb stick.Don't think this is your problem but might be worth a try.

banjo, I was told that 2 days ago by Voda

Jeff thanks for the suggestion but wifi is turned off.

I haven't any direct experience of these but would suggest:-

1. Put the SIM in a phone and try to dounload as much data as possible to stress test the connection. If the phone hasn't got a browser then try continually downloading email.

2. You could try connecting the computer to the phone via bluetooth or WiFi to see if you can get a conection that way. But that can be tricky and may be more trouble than it's worth as it would only validate the SIM.

3. On your computer, run MSconfig and dissable most startup programs and services - you will need to keep the USB management ones. Also dissable any other network connections and AV. Restart the computer and see if it works then. If it does, keep adding things back until it fails.

PTH, I don't know if this is relevant, but I've had problems with USB devices on my HP desktop:
- Skype handset doesn't seem to get enough power when plugged direct into the computer's USB sockets. I solved this by connecting it through external powered USB hub.
- Canon multifunction printer won't work (device not recognised) when connected with an ordinary USB extension lead. I have to use a signal amplifying extension lead.

That may well be a problem. USB ports tend to be in pairs so make sure that there is nothing else plugged into the adjacent socket. If there is one on the opposite site of the computer, try using that.

A powered adaptor would be even better.