Helo, if you can

[tahuatinsuyo]

Hello everyone. I just logged in and I have a big question. I am fairly up to date on CD rom's, but just bought my firsT DVD rom and am really confised. I have a CD Rom an a CD RW on my new computer, so I disconnected the CD rom and connected the DVD ROM in it's place. Now, I don't know what to do. It DOES work, but I think I need a driver, don't I? I did get a disk with the Regional Manager.exe which works, but nothing else. Do I need to set it up in Windows 2000? If so, what kind of hardware is it? Obviously it's not a PNP rom or I wouldn't be having problems. It's a Goldstar 8080B. Is there a web site I should go to and download the driver? Then what?
Please help if you can. I have only 14-no 13 days left to be able to return it if I need to.
Thanks again
Chris

[1 Smelly Fish]

You said it is working, can you watch DVD's on it ? Does you PC pick it up in SYSTEM and is it the correct DVD rom? If so there is no worries, dont stress

Cheers

[tahuatinsuyo]

I'm returning it after all

[COLOR=darkred]
I am having to return this DVD player I did not know that I needed a decoder and a DVD card for my HP. This is all very new to me and it was not explained in the sale (over the internet of course) and since it didn't come with anything other than the CD for the region manager even the driver download from the manuf., didn't help.
Thanks for all who have viewed my message.
Chris

[benderman]

With Win98 or higher you don't need a special driver. You should be able to read any DVD just by connecting the drive like a CD-Rom.
For Video-DVD-Playback you CAN use a hardware-decoder-card, but if your PC is 400MHz or faster you should be able to play it directly with a software-player like WinDVD or PowerDVD. Install WinDVD, insert Video-DVD, start WinDVD andyou should see the movie.

[tahuatinsuyo]

the problem is...

the problem I found was that the company I bought it from said that my video card was probably not compatible for DVD, although HP tech assistance said it should not be a problem. When I installed the driver that I downloaded for Windows 98 from LG, it locked up my computer and I had to do control alt delete to get to the problem, end task on what looked like the keyboard, and then the icon for the CD rom would appear and continue from there. I looked at "My Computer" and actually saw 3 CD rom drive icons when I only had 2. When I deleted one of them through the system devices, the computer went back to normal. I was told that I needed a decoder too. The only software I got with the DVD rom was the region manager, nothing more and my computer HP 8665C would not automatically detect the ROM. Can I still save this from returning it? I would really like to. I have a program that I bought to make back up copies of my DVD's and it has a file which I believe is either a DVD cut or a MP3 which I can see fine! It's called I-ON Video CD Player 1.0. How do I install the ROM drive with the other 2 from Windows 98? It thinks that I have 3 when I only have 2 connected. Thanks

[Cpt.Crunch]

I'm a little confused by your last post. Please provide us with your system specs, such as CPU speed, amount of ram, type of video card, and brand of DVD-rom drive.

When I deleted one of them through the system devices, the computer went back to normal

Which drive did you delete? The dvd-rom drive, or one of the other cd-rom drives?

Win98 should automatically detect new drives and install the appropriate drivers for it. You might want to go into your bios and check to see that auto-drive detection is enabled.

I installed the driver that I downloaded for Windows 98 from LG

What type of driver did you download? Video drivers? DVD-rom drivers?

Depending on your system specs, you do NOT need a hardware decoder card for watching dvd movies on your computer. There are many software dvd players, such as PowerDVD and WinDVD, that do the encoding, eliminating the need for a hardware decoder.

[tahuatinsuyo]

it's a 600 Mhz processor

is that good enough or do I still need a decoder?

[Cpt.Crunch]

600 mhz is more than sufficient for software decoding. You do not need a hardware decoder card.

You will need to get some type of software player, such as PowerDVD or WinDVD. These players are very good and feature-packed. However, if you don't want to spend money, there are a few free dvd players that you can download. Check these out:

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download.html

http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/downloads/playback.html

[tahuatinsuyo]

OK, now what?

Ok, so now I';m getting somewhere, but the fact still remains that my operating system still thinks that I have 3 rom drives which locks the system when it is booting because it can't find the "3rd" drive. The 3rd is the DVD drive which is connected to the CD Rom connection. When I disconnect the CD rom and plug in the DVD rom, it still thinks that the CD Rom is there along with the DVD and the CD RW. What can I do now?
This is getting good, please keep replying and maybe I can still keep this thing after all.

[tahuatinsuyo]

Type of DVD Rom

Does it make a difference that it is a Goldstar 8080B and my desktop is an HP 8665C? I read that the Goldstar is for IBM/Compaq.

[tahuatinsuyo]

Clarification

In the previous messages I was asked what kind of driver I downloaded. It was the driver for this DVD Rom for Windows 98. This aparently installed the rom, but then I started having hanging up problems on booting a 3rd rom. How do I get rid of the 3rd rom?

[Cpt.Crunch]

Is the dvd-rom drive set as a slave or a master? Try fiddling around with different combinations. I would try first setting the dvd-rom drive as the master instead of the cd-rw drive. Also make sure that the ribbon cable you are using is plugged in properly to both the motherboard and the dvd-rom drive.

You might want to also try getting some help here:

http://www.cybertechhelp.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum&f=7

[tahuatinsuyo]

Continuation

Today, I connected the DVD player again. I have a DVD player, and when I access the eject button it ejects. Fine so far. I put in a DVD and it didn't do anything-no read nothing! I checked the settings for the DVD and it did read the DVD player and said it was working properly. I read somewhere and I can't remember just where that the DMA needs to be unselected, so I did, and then I started having problems. My computer locked up when it was booting. I switched back to the CD Rom again and it worked fine. I went and switched back to the DVD rom, checking all the cables etc., (I haven't tried the master and slave) but it seemed to lock up on the boot of the DVD player WinDVD3.0. I deleted the program but no luck, it didn't make any difference. I really want to use this DVD rom but it seems to be much more hassle than it's worth. I am thinking of getting an external drive since I wouldnot need to worry about cables, settings that I don't understand and it would probably come with the software that I need. The manufacturer said that it should have come with Power DVD (which it didn't) so I don't know if that's the reason I;m having so much trouble or since the settings says it's working OK that this is something that is secondary.
Any clues?
Thanks