Solved DVD/CD problems

Lee Grant · Oct 30, 2015

I'm not much of a techie an am not sure if this is a Vista or hardware thing.

These are my DVD/CD drive details.

HL-DT-ST BDDVDRW GBC-H20L ATA Device [Optical drive].

I haven't used the drive for about a year but I now that I want to, I find that I have these problems:

There is no Autoplay for DVDs but I can start them manually by dragging them into the media player/s.

There is no Autoplay for CDs and when I drag them into the media player/s the files show as small cda files.

I checked if I could use my recovery disks to see if they worked, since I was planning a reinstall in a few weeks' time anyway, because sometimes my computer turned itself off - and other times Windows stopped operating.

The recovery disk didn't start any recovery process even when Windows was working OK (which is most of the time), though you can see there are files on the disks when you click on "Computer", then on the drive.

Could somebody help to answer these questions please? :

How I can get my CDs and DVDs working with Autoplay?

If there is no satisfactory answer I will reinstall Vista ASAP instead of later - but how can I do that when I can't use the recovery disks??

I use Vista Home Premium. This is my first post and I assume my HP Pavilion 32-bit desktop computer details in my registration are available, but let me know if I should re-post them here.

Thank you.
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Vistaar · Oct 30, 2015

Welcome to Vista Forums! Try going to Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > AutoPlay. There should be drop-down lists for Audio CD and DVD movie among other things. They might currently be set to "Take no action." Windows Media Player should be capable of playing either one (however Australian DVDs are different than North American and I'm not certain about those), or you may have other software installed. The setting "Ask me every time" might be best if you use various programs for playing/ripping/copying discs.

ilikefree · Oct 31, 2015

I use Media Player Classic and I had to do a registry change to make it happen
This is what I did

To have MPC open dvd in drive D: by default.
Make a change to Registry key

Computer\HKey_Classes_Root\DVD\Shell\play\command

"%ProgramFiles%\combined community codec pack\mpc\mpc-hc.exe"%L"

Have a look in the registry at the key

Computer\HKey_Classes_Root\DVD\Shell\play\command

See what is listed in the right when you highlight the key

Lee Grant · Oct 31, 2015

Thanks guys

Vistaar

I still can't get Autoplay changing things to "Ask me every time" but I can now play the CDs manually on different media players than the one I normally use - and probably could before if I had tried.

So now I can play CDs and DVDs manually by dragging them into the players (GOM, WMP and MPC-HC - but not VLC which I normally use); so the question remains - how to invoke Autoplay.

ilikefree

When you said: "I use Media Player Classic and I had to do a registry change to make it happen", did you mean "to make Autoplay happen" ??

If it is I will give it a go but I don't know if I could be trusted in the Registry area.

Maybe I will get brave and do it in the morning our time; so watch this space.

On the other matter I mentioned: I was worried that I couldn't use my recovery disks to reinstall Vista because there was no autoplay and indeed, nothing comes up when I put the first one in where the CDs go, to experiment.

I notice that HP has a a function in its Recovery Manager to Restore to Factory Settings but am I right in saying that I would still need to use my recovery disks to put Vista back in ??

I said I wasn't much of a techie.

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ilikefree · Oct 31, 2015

Yes to first question, When I first got Vista installed putting a cd/dvd in the drive it would open with Windows Media Player.
I didn't want that and Windows wouldn't remember when I told it to always open with Media Player Classic in the auto play setting.
My options were to turn off auto play and select the player of choice each time or make the registry edit.

I have never used restore disc's from any manufacturer as they always come with bloat.
I use a copy of Vista I have burned to disc and just get Vista without any of the added programs computers come with.
I still use my activation key that came with the computer and always put it in after the computer is up and running.

To install from a disc you would need to enter the bios, before Windows starts to load, and change the boot order.
Set it to boot first from the cd-rom.
When you have a disc in the drawer it will then try to boot from that first.
If you have no disc in the drawer it will move on to the next in the order you have set in the bios.

With HP I think you enter the bios by holding down F10 when you first start the computer.
Almost every computer manufacturer has their own way of entering the bios so Google your model, I think you will find it is F10.
Vista ISO files (what you need to burn to disc,) are free here on this site or if you need 32bit are also on my site.
A very good tutorial on doing a fresh install is in the tutorial section on Vistax64 forums

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/117366-clean-install-full-version-vista.html

ilikefree_Program_Index

Vistaar · Oct 31, 2015

Lee Grant said:
I still can't get Autoplay changing things to "Ask me every time" but I can now play the CDs manually on different media players than the one I normally use - and probably could before if I had tried.

So now I can play CDs and DVDs manually by dragging them into the players (GOM, WMP and MPC-HC - but not VLC which I normally use); so the question remains - how to invoke Autoplay.

I didn't actually mean to recommend "Ask me every time," which should cause a window with a list of options to appear after a CD or DVD is inserted. Now that we know what you want AutoPlay to work with, I have installed VLC 2.2.1 on my own HP PC running 32-bit Vista Home Premium to see if I would get the same issue. (I've been meaning to try VLC anyway.) I had no difficulty getting CDs and DVDs to autoplay using these settings:

VLC might be the first application I ever saw for which Custom installation is the default. I wonder if you might possibly have deselected Discs Playback when you installed it? (I deselected Web plugins.)

But it does sound like something is wrong with AutoPlay in general. Before attempting something as drastic as editing the registry or reinstalling Vista, try this: Click the Start button, select All programs, click Accessories folder, right-click on Command Prompt and select Run as administrator. Type net start shellhwdetection and press Enter. Restart the PC. That might hopefully get AutoPlay working.

Lee Grant · Nov 1, 2015

Vistaar

I revisited the Autoplay area of my Control Panel and confirmed that the "Autoplay should be used for all media" box was ticked.

The "Ask me every time" change didn't work because it never asked me anything after I put that option in for all things listed.. Nor, later on, did changing the options to nominate some of the four different media players I have now for CDs and DVDs - VLC, WMP, MPC and GOM - make any difference.

So the options in that area of my Control Panel obviously don't have any effect on Autoplay whatever I put in there.

Thanks for that Command Prompt suggestion but it had not effect either.

As indicated, I was able to get CDs and DVDs (all purchased locally in stores, by the way) working manually, but that was not the point.

I needed Autoplay to ensure that my recovery disks work later on this month when I use them. Whenever I put the first one in now to test things "Computer" recognises them and you can see the files are in there, but obviously nothing was initiated without Autoplay.

ilikefree

Personal messages are probably not allowed here but congrats to your lads for winning the Rugby World Cup - they were too good for my Aussie guys, alas.
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I looked in the Registry as you recommended and indeed, it had the most recent media player I had nominated as the the last item on the right hand side.

As for using my recovery disks I will cross that bridge later. I think that I made a couple of copies of it when I purchased the computer a while back because it was an option offered when I fired it up for the first time. I have used them before but that was when Autoplay was working.

In case nobody has any other ideas thanks for your help.

wirelessrouter · Nov 12, 2015

My options were to turn off auto play and select the player of choice each time or make the registry edit.:D :D

Lee Grant · Nov 14, 2015

Thanks for that.

I decided to reset my computer to it's factory settings through the HP procedure, but it wouldn't come up with the right button to click on.

Tried to use my recovery disks but they wouldn't work either - probably because of no Autoplay.

A mate of mine got the recovery disks working by attaching an external CD player to a USB port - I had no clue.

And after the re-install, Autoplay worked.

Thanks again guys.
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