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question about playing a Cd on an old PC?

15 years ago

My niece has an old PC still runs W98 even has an A drive (floppy) however it does have a CD drive, I sent her a CD with pics. I burned on it in WMP which she has also of course, it will not play no options...nothing comes up? I burned them onto a CD-RW is it possible that her PC will only play a CD-R?? she can play any that she has of games etc. but not this one I sent to her. Anyone???

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Comments (6)

ravencajun Zone 8b TX
15 years ago
did you are anyone else try it on another pc to make sure it was a good burn often times cds are just bad so the first thing to do is try it somewhere else to rule out just a bad cd, but yes it could be that her pc does not read the type you wrote or it could be problems with her cd player, there are stand alone usb cd drives that are very cheap she could get to use if she has some usb ports on that pc (they will probably be usb 1.1 instead of 2, most things are backward compatible but something to check for)
susieq07
Original Author
15 years ago
Of course I tired it! I burned it after all, and it's not a CD player it's her old PC which I imagine does not read CD-RW's only CD-R's I will burn another on a CD-R, or she will view it on a friends newer PC. my question has been answered, thanks anyway...
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DA_Mccoy
15 years ago
As only leaving Win98 18 months ago, kicking and screaming I admit, my position is it shouldn't matter R vs RW.

I would recommend that she open My Computer and see if the drive is recognizing the disk. Unless you named the disk it should read as a series of numbers rather than the drive letter identifier.

If the disk is recognized have her double click on it, or right click and select open on the appearing drop down menu.

I do have one other thought. Your WMP version may be so more ahead than hers, she might not have the technical ability to open the files.

You might have to redo the disk with perhaps Irfanview and ask her to install it on her system too. Irfanview worked fine on my old Win98 and still does on the one out in the garage. Plus, to avoid the possiblity use a CD-R if you do.

DA
bpgreen
15 years ago
It may depend on how you burned the CD-RW. There's a way to do it that requires certain drivers that are available in newer versions of Windows but not in older versions. The best way to burn one is to burn an ISO image and make sure that you "finish" the process (I forget the exact wording, but it's something like that) so that it can be read by another computer.

Also, if I remember correctly, CD-R and CD-RW are less likely to be able to be readable by older machines.

You may need to use a CD+RW or maybe even a CD+R in order to share with your niece.
DA_Mccoy
15 years ago
My nine year old HP P2 would read and write all formats.

Since pictures are data disks I don't think the question of whether or not the disk is appendable is an issue. However, isn't the closing of a disk or session for music so it can be played on all compatible players not just the system the disk was published on?

DA
jemdandy
15 years ago
In order to write a CR-RW data disc, authoring software must be installed. Authoring software supports features such as mastering, packet writing, and duplicating.

A CDROM drive has to be a "multiread" type to read CD-RW data discs, and the proper driver must be installed. Many old CD drives could not read a CD-RW data disc. However, a CD-RD blank disc can be written as a CDROM data disc. Consult the manual for the CD drive in question. If the manual has been misplaced, it may be possible to view a copy on-line (at the manufacturer's web site). If the manual is no longer present on the manufacturer's site, use Google in an attempt to find a copy.

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