initailizing

[bentaxle]

After installing a ulead prog it said it couldnt find my burner ,tried to take prog out but ulead wouldnt let me it came up with error reading initaiization now the burner doesnt work at all ,took it back to pc world as they sold me the prog and would take it out for me ,but after 30 mins dancing around in safe mode they gave up ,got in touch with corel product & services and part of there reply was ,you might need to upgrade your firm ware please take note however that this is a highly sensiitive procedure (what a reply after spending 30 quid with them),ive managed to to take out every thing with a ulead tag ,ive followed device manager procedure but no luck just cant initailise whatever that means just what is this initailizing all about ,any advice needs to be basic as ime an old norfolk man strong in the arm and weak in the head ,all the best to you all

[ACtheTROLL]

love them ....
for a bit of a dummy you sound to be making a better fist than the PCWorld boys ....;-)

right .... forget ulead for a moment
you don't say which burner .... or which version of windows - or which particular ulead prog ... or indeed which burning software....so this is a little experimental

go to control panel | system | hardware | device manager | DVD/CD-Rom drives

select the burner and delete it.

reboot the system ... it should re-install the drive ??????
assuming it does .... first try your burning software .... if no joy
download and install
http://www.imgburn.com/

and see if it detects your drive (it works slightly differently to mainstream packages)

if no joy ... you need to go to the burners Mfrs website
look in the support section for a firmware update for your exact model - download and install

if the drive isn't recognised ... remove it again

if still no joy you need to look in BIOS to see if the drive shows there
but we'll tackle that later

[bentaxle]

thank you acthetroll Now its ATAPI DVD DUAL BENQ DW 822A , and using XP HOME , the prog was ulead 6 this i havent got now as pc world took it back saying it could have a fault and refunded me,oh and i have a disc that came with the pc and on it is benq dvd rewriter bonus software,what i will do now is have a cup of tea to calm the nerves and get started ,this could take awile but i will let you now whatever ,thank you again

[bentaxle]

Well ac i went through most of your advice that is the bits i understood ,i couldnt ouite understand the imaburn site and on the benq site i couldnt find a support section ,at all
i think i could be out of my depth with this .but i would like to take it abit further if you could just explain the bios option
for me ,i have taken this pc off line and using an old one at the moment ,so its on the bench daring me to fix it and,its just annoying to think this was brought about by adding a damn prog,thanks again

[ACtheTROLL]

simplest first.
imgburn is (would you believe) burning software .... it works in a different way to most of the mainstream ... so it's a good way to see if the drive is there.

support ... it's well hidden http://benq.co.uk/support/ ;-)

bios .... when the machine starts up ... you probably get lots of messages scrolling up the screen (this is the bios)
you can either try to spot the DVD entry
or .... to get into the bios ... unfortunately isn't standard ... but normally when you switch on you will get a message that says
press ...
f2 or del or something or other to enter setup

press whatever it says .... and you're in... (BE VERY CAREFUL - if in doubt exit WITHOUT saving changes!!)

some where should be the HDD, CD/DVD, memory and all the other bits..... at least the bits that the bios can see (so if your drive is there .... it's windows causing the problem.


in windows ... open the start menu
open control panel
on the left you will see a link saying ....
switch to classic view - click on it
lots of icons!!!
open the "system" option
look at the top of the window - click hardware
now press the device manager button
look for the "DVD/CD-Rom drives" branch and click the "+"
single click the benq drive (if it's shown)
press delete ... confirm.

shut the machine down .... then re-start

see if the drive is detected.

if you fancy a walk on the wild side ... download
http://www.zhangduo.com/UnknownDeviceIdentifie r.exe

install .... and see if the drive is listed

[bentaxle]

Well AC theres lots of info there for me to get my teeth into
if I cant win with all this I will throw the towel in and call it a day .Thanks for your time your information and your patience
If you read of some oap doing cart wheels down a street
you can guess who it will be
all the best