Newbie with question.

[CParkerh]

my question is kinda of silly but here goes.

I have an Emachines 400id machine with an intel Celeron processor. I have 64mb of ram and 3d AGP graphics card that came with the machine.

It also came with a CD/DVD-Rom (5x) by Mediamatics program called DVDexpress build 4.00.

I have been using this DVD-rom to play both DVDs AND VCDs until recently when it began refusing VCDs. To be sure, I tried playing VCDs in both Windows Media player v.7.01 AND Intervideo WinDVD v.3.0. When I try to use Windows Media player, it errors out and tells me either the disk isn't in the CD-Rom OR that it's dirty. When I use WinDVD, it goes fine for about a minute and half and stops, restarts and pauses,etc.

In both programs, the VCD will play about 14-45 seconds, pause as the drive spins furiously and then play again. Sometimes the pauses last as long as minute and sometimes the program just errors out and quits.

The VCDs are brand new (I looked and didn't see any scratches or smudges on them), I can still play DVDs on the machine and I watched VCDs on this machine before.

I am running windows 98 if that helps.

Please, can anyone help me with my problem?

Many thanks in advance.

[thxkid]

Are these VCD's pre-recorded or owns that have been burned?

[CParkerh]

Burned ones.

[CParkerh]

Please anyone?

[mystikaldawg]

You should check to see if your DVD-Rom isn't burned out, take it to a technician they'll be able to tell you if your rom is burnt out, i've had the same problem but wit DVDs that wouldn't play.

[mijman]

Emachines are notorious for using parts that are total shit. See if your drive works in other computers (if availiable) It could very well be the drive. Sometimes the drives die, even if they're not that old.

[CParkerh]

Okay I will try the drive checking but I can play DVDs in that drive.

[bewley]

Just a thought...

I noticed that you said the VCD's were brand new... Have you changed CD-R media lately? Is it possible the drive is having problems with this current brand of media you are using?

If you have an old VCD that has worked in the past, give it a try to see if it works. If it does, try a different brand of CD-R... If not, see replies above.

- bewley

[CParkerh]

I tried one of my older VCD's that used to work and it crashed too.

I went so far as to delete Windows media player (I had version 7.1) and re-downloaded 6.4. That didn't help as it crashed as well (it also looks like the old basic windows media player for some reason???)