SNICK
Topic Starter
I HAVE A 2006, DESKTOP, DELL, DEMENSION E521, 2ghZ, 960 MB OF RAM, CPU AMD 64 ATHLON, WINDOWS XP VISTA COMPATABLE. COMPUTER WAS HORRIBLY SLOW, THE FIRST WEEK I OWNED IT, SO MY FRIEND WIPED OUT THE HARDDRIVE AND REINSTALLED ONLY WHAT HE THOUGHT WAS NECESSARY FOR ME TO DO WHAT I DO. I DO NOT KNOW IF A DVD DRIVER WAS EVER INSTALLED. I NEVER TRIED TO PLAY A DVD ON MY CD WRITER, CD PLAYER, DVD PLAYER THAT CAME WITH MY DELL (INTERNAL), UNTIL 1 MONTH AGO. COMPUTER OPENED UP WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER, WHICH PLAYS CD'S, RIPS AND BURNS CD'S, BUT WILL NOT PLAY A DVD. ERROR MESSAGE. THIS COMPUTER DOES NOT HAVE A COMPATABLE DVD DECODER INSTALLED. I BOUGHT AN EXTERNAL DVD/CD WRITER HOPING TO BURN SOME DVD'S. HOWEVER, IT PLAYS A CD, RIPS AND BURNS A CD BUT WILL NOT PLAY A DVD. THE SAME MESSAGE OF NO DECODER SHOWS UP. THE OTHER MESSAGE WAS FOR ME TO REDUCE THE RESOLUTION SETTINGS WHICH I DID, BUT DVD STILL WILL NOT PLAY. I TRIED TO DOWNLOAD A FREE DVD DECODER BUT WAS UNSUCCESSFUL. THE SITE SAID THEY HAD TO SCAN MY COMPUTER FIRST AND THEN SAID I NEEDED TO PAY THEM MONEY TO FIX THE 750 CRITCAL PROBLEMS THEY FOUND BEFORE THEY COULD INSTALL A DVD DECODER. I TRIED TO UNINSTALL ALL THE PROGRAMS THEY INSTALLED ON MY COMPUTER AND MY NORTAN ANTIVIRUS SCANNED AND ELIMINATED ~ 5 POTENTIALLY HARMFUL OBJECTS. I DID COME ACROSS A ROXIO DVD DECODER, COMPATABLE WITH WINDOWS XP, AND FOR ~` 32 DOLLARS WILL INSTALL A DECODER ON MY COMPUTER AND SENT ME A CD WITH THE DECODER PROGRAM ON IT SO I COULD REINSTALL IT IN THE FUTURE IF I NEEDED TO.
WHAT DO I NEED TO DO TO BE ABLE TO PLAY A DVD ON MY COMPUTER. I BELIEVE THE EXTERNAL DVD BURNER I BOUGHT RECENTLY, LITEON, 24 X EXTERNAL DVD/CD WRITER HAS THE SOFTWARE WITH IT ENABLING IT TO BURN. MY FIRST PROBLEM IS I CAN NOT PLAY A DVD ON MY EXTERNAL DVD WRITER NOR ON MY INTERNAL DVD PLAYER. THANK YOU SNICK
