Forever inept; Computer help needed

[Kindred]

Hello BB's. Once again it would appear that I am unable to master even the basics of computing (I think that it's really because computers are out to get me, but I try not to get to worked up over the whole thing. Just know; they're evil) and once again, I turn to you all, my fellow BBs to aid me in my hour of need.

Anywho, it appears that when my computer was re-formatted or whatever (I don't speak computer) that my ability to play DVDs or DVD ROMs was not re-programmed. I'm not really sure which driver I need to use, [D:]? [G:]? When I insert a disc it doesn't automatically play. The only thing that I know to do is go into the Startup Menu (Windows '98) and then select Run. Nothing even comes up in the [D:] drive section and the computer tells me that "The Device Is Not Ready" when I try to access the options for the [G:] drive.

I know that there are a lot of computer savy individuals on board here and I beg of you, please enlighten me as to what I need to do... And also, try not to be too overly judgemental of my bad relationships with computers. I'm working on it.

Thanks to anyone who can help me out.

~Kindred

 

[Jill_Valentine]

So... you have Windows and all installed okay? So can you just go to My Computer and double click on the DVD drive?

 

[Kindred]

No go. There's nothing in the [D:] drive, leading me to think that perhaps this is not the one I need and the [G:] drive tells me that "the device is not ready." Any idea how I "ready the device"?

Thanks oodles for trying to help me out though 🙂

~Kindred

 

[Jill_Valentine]

Ah, if it were only that simple. Okay. It's been a long time since I've done anything with DVD drives, so bear that in mind. Presumably the DVD drive is a built-in one, rather than a plug in one. Don't suppose you have a driver CD or PowerDVD to go with it hanging around? Do you have anything else attached to the computer? (External drives, CD or DVD burners) If the DVD drive is the only drive, and you don't have a seperate CD Rom drive, the chances are it is the D Drive. Beyond that, I have the technical abilities of Homer Simpson's drinking bird, I'm afraid...

 

[Kindred]

No, nothing external at all and I am able to play CD ROMs currently.

Not to worry, Homer Simpson's drinking bird certainly beats me 🙂

 

[Beer_Nut]

Okay... my turn to give it a shot. The first thing I would suggest is seeing if the computer recognizes the DVD drive. To do this go to start - control panel - system - hardware (tab) - device manager (button). In device manager look for your DVD rom and expand the list, check that it is there and that there is no yellow yield sign beside it (if there is it means that there is a problem that windows detects).

The other thing that I might try is uninstalling the driver (in device manager) and shutting down the computer and see if windows finds it again and reinstalls the software.

If there is no luck with this let me know and I'll try to think of something else.

 

[Kindred]

I tried that and can't even find the driver. I think that when, a while back, my 'puter had to be entirely reformatted, they good people at the Sony tech center forgot to re-install it along with several other things. It was originally there though, as I had used it in the past.

 

[eudial]

Helping people with computer issues online is hard. Helping people with computer issues online in a secondary language is rediculously difficult, but heh, that hasn't kept me from doing so before; so here we go, i assume your computer is not home built? If not there may be a driver disc or something like that. So go through the stuff that came with the computer. If you're lucky you just need to insert it and it'll start installing the drivers automaticly.

I don't have windows on this box (it's running linux) so i have no reference at all on how the menus and stuff look so i can't really get that technical i'm afraid.