[phillpower2]

Yes every possibility needs to be checked unfortunately 

 

Try the SS& D removal and Puppy if you have to and then post back please.

[Advertisements]

1. I uninstalled Spybot Search & Destroy.  Inserted retail DVD.  Was asked what I wanted to do.  Selected play with MPC.  Nothing happened.  Repeated with DVD and this time selected Windows Media Player.  Nothing happened.

 

2. Booted into Puppy.  On the desktop icon sr0 showed that the Puppy CD was inserted in one of my two optical drives.  Inserted DVD into other drive.  Nothing happened.  However, icon sr1 now appeared on desktop. Clicked once and movie played.  (No sound however.  Maybe I needed to set up drivers for that.)

 

So that's where I am at the moment.  Hopefully this provides you with more useful clues to solving this enigma.

 

Should I now disconnect the IDE ribbon from one of the drives and see if the DVD plays; then repeat with the other drive?

[Jackpine]

1. I uninstalled Spybot Search & Destroy.  Inserted retail DVD.  Was asked what I wanted to do.  Selected play with MPC.  Nothing happened.  Repeated with DVD and this time selected Windows Media Player.  Nothing happened.

 

2. Booted into Puppy.  On the desktop icon sr0 showed that the Puppy CD was inserted in one of my two optical drives.  Inserted DVD into other drive.  Nothing happened.  However, icon sr1 now appeared on desktop. Clicked once and movie played.  (No sound however.  Maybe I needed to set up drivers for that.)

 

So that's where I am at the moment.  Hopefully this provides you with more useful clues to solving this enigma.

 

Should I now disconnect the IDE ribbon from one of the drives and see if the DVD plays; then repeat with the other drive?

[phillpower2]

Did you run the CD/DVD Wizard first, some info here if not please do so before disconnecting the second drive, I am trying to avoid as much work as possible for you.

[Jackpine]

I didn't run the CD/DVD Wizard first.  I will do so.  I appreciate your concern about me avoiding as much work as possible.

 

I assume that this will not change any settings that are normally used when I am back in Windows XP, correct?

 

Regarding your instructions from the last post, I am not clear on what needs to be done and the sequence of steps.  Specifically, you mention to run the wizard before disconnecting the second drive. 

 

So, are you saying you want me to boot into Puppy, disconnect one drive, run the wizard and then see if the DVD will autoplay?  If so, how do I try the DVD if one drive is disconnected, unless you want me to connect it again after running the wizard?  But what will that prove since when I ran the wizard it was checking the drive that had the Puppy CD in it?

 

Please clarify and also note my question above about any potential changes to normal Windows XP settings.

 

Thank you.

Edited by Jackpine, 26 March 2014 - 11:05 AM.

[phillpower2]

No changes will be made to XP as you will be booting into Puppy Linux.

 

I asked that you run the Puppy Linux CD/DVD Wizard first to see if the optical drives would auto play as they are set up now rather than you go to the trouble of changing the boot sequence of the two drives or physically disconnecting the second drive, the latter is to see if only having one drive connected to the IDE ribbon and IDE socket makes a difference.

 

NB: If Puppy Linux was on a USB stick you could have also tested both drives while they were both connected to the IDE ribbon and IDE socket but never mind.

[Jackpine]

Hi phillpower2, I understand.

 

I will put Puppy Linux on to a USB stick and do the tests as described.  One thing: can I boot from a USB stick?  I don't recall seeing that as an option when I was in the BIOS.  (I think I figured it out.  I have to have the USB stick with Puppy Linux on it installed in the computer before I enter the BIOS.  Then I can select the USB as the first item in the boot order.)

Edited by Jackpine, 26 March 2014 - 03:48 PM.

[phillpower2]

Hello Jackpine

 

Not sure of your BIOS settings but if what you suggest works great, another option to try would be to boot into Puppy from your disk, insert your USB device that has Puppy on it and then remove the disk from the tray to see if you can then access Puppy on the USB device.

 

Thank you for your perseverance with this. 

[Jackpine]

Phillpower2,

 

1. I put Puppy Linux onto a USB stick and went into the BIOS.  Unfortunately, my BIOS doesn't recognize that a USB stick is inserted (unless there is an option to select it that I didn't see). 
2. So, I then booted into Puppy with the Puppy CD in one of the drives.  Puppy recognized this as sr0 as the default CDROM player.  I ran the CD/DVD Wizard to set the other drive (of the two optical drives that I have) so Puppy recognizes sr1 as the default DVD player.
3. I inserted a retail DVD into the sr1 drive.  No autoplay.  However, an icon with the name of sr1 appeared and when I clicked once, the movie played. Still no sound however.

[phillpower2]

Hello Jackpine

 

Not sure of your BIOS settings but if what you suggest works great, another option to try would be to boot into Puppy from your disk, insert your USB device that has Puppy on it and then remove the disk from the tray to see if you can then access Puppy on the USB device.

 

Thank you for your perseverance with this. 

Can you try this so that both drives are checked if possible.

 

How many IDE sockets does your MB have.

 

This is looking more and more like a hardware issue 

 

Please note that I cannot be around much today due to other commitments, apologies for any inconvenience that this may cause.

[Jackpine]

Hi phillpower2,

Here is the current status: (My two optical drives are D and E).

1. I booted into Puppy with Puppy CD in drive D. Retail DVD plays in drive E, but not when I insert the DVD, only after I click once on the drive icon that appears on the Puppy desktop.

2. I then booted into Puppy with the Puppy CD in drive E. As per Item 1 above, the reatil DVD plays when inserted in drive D, but again, only after i click once on the drive icon. (I looked through various Puppy forums and home site, and I gather that a DVD will not play automatically, rather it will only play as I described it above. Can you confirm this is correct?)

3. I put Puppy on to a USB using UNetbootin (obtained from http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/.)  My computer BIOS allows me to change the order to boot from a USB.  However, when I tried it, Puppy would not load.  During the load process, error messages came up indicating that various files were not found (I don't remember the exact messages.)   In any event, Puppy would not load from the USB drive.

 

Since I can't boot from the USB, I need to have Puppy running from one of my drives.  Removing the other drive from service won't allow me to test anything.  Unless I run Windows and remove one drive at a time as a test to see if the other drive will play the DVD.  Should I do that?

 

---------------------------  I did some more testin after my post.  See below.

 

I used the UNetbootin tool again, but this time instead of putting the Puppy iso (that I got from one of your previous posts) on the USB, I used the feature of UNetbootin to download the current version of Puppy from their website and installed it directly on the USB drive. 

 

I booted into Puppy using the USB drive!  I then tried each of the two optical drives (D and E) and tried to play a DVD.  I had to open the default player first (Gxine? or some such words), and select DVD.  The DVDs played, although there was still no sound.

 

What does this new development tell you?

Edited by Jackpine, 30 March 2014 - 08:11 PM.

[phillpower2]

Check the Event Manager settings as in the second post on the page here

 

As I have said previously I am trying to avoid work for you if at all possible, physically disconnecting the drives should be a last resort but if you do can you let us know how many IDE slots the MB has, some MBs have both SATA and IDE slots and if by chance your board has 2 IDE slots but a SATA HDD you could try the optical drive/s connected to the other IDE slot.

 

Check the  installed XP updates for the following one and let us know if it is present, http://www.microsoft...s.aspx?id=14044

[Jackpine]

1. I checked the Puppy Event Manager.  It looks exactly as shown in the link (First box ticked for auto-detection of target application; second box not ticked.)
2. My motherboard has one IDE socket.
3. I can't locate the particluar Microsoft update (KB971029).  I checked under Add/Remove Programs and selected Show Updates, but I can't find this particular  update in the list.  Maybe it's incorporated in Windows SP3.

By the way, when I am in Puppy and run the CD/DVD Wizard, since I have two drives, I select one to be the CDROM and the other to be the DVD reader.  I then exit the Wizard, but it doesn't appear to have saved anything. Does it save those settings when I exit?  (If I open the Wizard again to check the settings, it will show D as CDROM and then when I choose DVD, it will give me the option of selecting D or E drives.)

[phillpower2]

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you Jackpine.

 

Event Manager and one IDE slot details acknowledged.

 

Puppy does save the settings while the computer is in use but the settings will be lost after a restart, this because the settings are only temporarily saved in the Ram, Puppy will also recognise the types of drive as what they actually are.

 

No auto play with Puppy either unfortunately 

 

Change of approach;

 

1: Please check manually that XP is fully up to date, steps here

 

2: Please Run the PCPitstop.com OverDrive Full Tests

Here's how:

You must use your Internet Explorer for this procedure. (doesn't work so well in Firefox or others). If your machine is running Vista or Windows 7, you must Select IE to “Run as Administrator”. After completing PCPitstop OverDrive you can close your IE browser and re-open it Normally so that you are no longer running as administrator.

Go to:  http://www.pcpitstop.com/betapit/default.asp

Click on "Free Computer Check-up" listed below PC Pitstop OverDrive
In the User Login - Click on "Sign up FREE!"
You'll need to submit a valid email address and create your own password, then click - Create Account(button)

Now enter your email address and password to Log in, Select - Scan this system Now!(button)
You will then be asked to download an ActiveX component and allow it to install.
It is safe and does not compromise your privacy.
Follow the on-screen prompts to install the ActiveX and to allow the Full Tests to be run on your machine.

The Full Tests take about 2 1/2 - 3 minutes on most machines.
When complete, a Results - Summary - Recommended Fixes will be displayed.

Please post the URL internet address, from your Results, back here into this Topic Thread so that we can review the configuration and present performance levels of your machine.

Note: During the graphics 2D and graphics 3D testing, your screen will display some rapidly moving objects.
If you are sensitive to visual flashing, it may cause dizziness. Therefore, look away from the screen during that portion of the testing.

After reviewing the results we will be more informed and may be able to provide better recommendations for you to work towards improving your machine's performance.

While PCPitstop does offer a variety of Paid Products, the PCPitstop OverDrive testing is FREE. Please ignore the references to Paid Products. We prefer to provide manual solution instructions that you can apply directly to your machine.

 

Thanks to rshaffer61 for the PCPitstop information 

 

NB: An example of the url that we require and the information that it leads to http://www.pcpitstop...?conid=25271813

[Jackpine]

Hi phillpower2,

 

I will do the steps when I get home from work and report results.

 

By the way, in all the things that we have tried so far, is there something so simple and obvious that needs checking that has not been done?  For example, if the computer doesn't turn on, check to ensure that power cord is plugged in.

[phillpower2]

Hello Jackpine

 

If you can think of anything please feel free to mention it, a computer that doesn`t turn on would be far easier to troubleshoot than this as you would know for sure that the problem was hardware related.