Victory is mine ... finally..

In the past I did have the VLC installed but it was quite awhile ago, it didn't work for me at the time - or maybe the DVD I was trying was the problem... so i had removed it.

I decided to try again since mrsD mentioned that hers dvds didn't play until they used VLC.


And it works for me now!!!

now I need a new project to work on LOL.
maybe I'll do some spring cleaning LOL

So Mel if you keep at it it will finally pay off..
good luck

Did you make sure your video drivers are updated?

I did only try one so far the Tyler Perry's Class Reunion...

Okay, first things first.

Alan brought a brand new Avatar. Not an old used one. BRAND NEW.

Second things next.

I tried playing several dvds that I found in my house THAT PLAYED before. I tried to play them using the Video Lan thing.

Nothing worked.

I guess I'll try the uninstall Media pLayer 11 thing and we'll see what happens.

How cool is this?

I'm learning stuff at 62 that 40 year olds can't do. My neighbor is 40 and he said "YOU know how to use a computer?? I don't"

I burst out laughing.

Mel

Hi MelodyL.

I was just trying to help, and I did not know about your limitations. I apologize if it came across wrong.

If taking the tower back to the shop is impossible, you may find that your easiest solution is paying the $14.99 for the decoder (even though you don‘t want to).

You may also want to try to download a free trial version of expensive multimedia software like Nero (or another expensive robust brand, the expensive brands sometimes get you better results). The trial versions are free to try for 15 days or more, and you may want to use a trial to see if you can get the DVD to play. This may get you outside of some of the possible compatibility issues, and it may get you the decoder you need to play a DVD. It is even possible that once the decoder is installed, and the free trial version stops working, that the windows player will then be able to play the DVD since the decoder is in place.

Just some ideas, I hope this was a little helpful. God Bless You.

Bernclay-

I downloaded the HUGE Nero Multi media thing. GOD WHAT A HUGE DOWNLOAD. I now have all these icons on my desktop Nero, this, Nero that. All I care about is playing a dvd. So I downloaded, installed, blah blah.

I uninstalled my other media players. The bestplayer, and the vlc one.

I didn't touch the Windows Media Player 11 because it's a WINDOWS XP THING and I didn't want to touch that.

so I re-booted, I put in Avatar, it loaded up just fine.

There was Avatar, but the sound is crappy and the video moves slowly.

Same thing with my other dvd's.

I tried cleaning my dvd rom drive thing by blowing air out of my mouth into it. (I read where you can buy a can of air and do this, but since I don't have a can of air, I used my mouth).

It was a bit better but NOT MUCH.

So I gather my dvd rom thing is dirty. I am going to go to the computer guy, borrow a can of air from him, come home, and try again.

this Nero thing is a free trial.

Thank god.

Melody

Okay, here's the latest on my journey to play my Avatar DVD.

Thinking my dvd lightscribe dvd rom thing might be dirty or dusty, I went to the computer guy but he wasn't there. So I said to myself: 'If they have VCR HEAD CLEANERS, they MUST have dvd rom CLEANERS.

So I went to my local Video Store, telling the guy (who I know for years), I told him my story. He handed me a

JVC DVD lens cleaner (a little round disc thing).

He said "put this in the center of the dvd rom", it will then come up on your screen, you press play, and when you're done, you press close"

I go home, (now remember I uninstalled my VLC media player and now I have NERO which brings everything up but plays jerky, and the sound is not right.

I insert the dvd lens cleaner thing (thinking that it will now come up on my screen). I look at the dvd rom drive and it's doing SOMETHING. The light is on, so it's doing something. But NOTHING is happening on my screen.

I really thought that Nero (being my default media player now), would read the dvd rom drive and bring up the lens cleaner message. No such luck.

I then went to my computer thinking that I would see it in Drive E (where I always see Avatar or any other dvd that I have inserted)

There is nothing showing. It's like my computer does not know that there is anything in the dvd rom drive.

so I said "hm, well, Nero is not reading this cleaner, I'll re-install the VLC thing and that might read the JVC lens cleaner.

So I download the VLC yet again. I see the little icon on my screen.

I insert the dvd cleaner once more. I bring up the VLC media player. I press PLAY, and a little disc kept popping up, BUT NO MESSAGE, NO NOTHING.

So if anyone knows how I can get this little dvd lens cleaner thing to clean my dvd rom I would be very appreciative.

I mean, I spent $7.99 on this stupid thing and my computer doesn't even know it's there?

And I tried to insert it in the other drive, the cd drive. Nothing happened there either.

So what I want to know is why Nero or the VLC is not reading what is in my dvd rom drive????

Thanks.

Melody

Hi MelodyL.

A question. Is the DVD cleaner the same size as a regular DVD or smaller?

Here is some other information.

Don’t worry about Nero being big, after the trial ends you can always uninstall it.

But I have a question. You said you loaded Nero and then uninstalled some other media players, and then rebooted. Is this exactly how you did it, or are you just paraphrasing?

Because, sometimes, when you load a new program, and then uninstall another similar program, the uninstall can mess up parts of the new program you just loaded. This can happen since they share components.

So. As a general rule, whenever you install a new program, if you are going to uninstall other programs, do it this way.

First, uninstall whatever you don’t want.
Then reboot the system.
Then install whatever you do want.
Then reboot the system.
Then try it out.

Always reboot in between whatever you are doing (also in between individual uninstalls or installs). Windows needs this step to reorganize itself. I can explain why this is important but it is beyond the scope of what we are talking about.

So if you did not do it this way, and you did get partial results, believe it or not, the only way to know if it will work for sure is to uninstall everything, and then reinstall it in the correct order.

I know it stinks, but it is the only way to know for sure. Unless you have a tech physically looking at your system, diagnosing and repairing these kinds of things can be messy.

A side note. The compressed air is probably a good idea to try

A second side note. I don’t know how old your system is, but if it was aging, and the guys at the shop replaced the motherboard, they could have physically damaged the DVD drive and not realized that they did it. A little movement here, a little pressure there, sometimes it does not take much, especially if the drive is a few years old (you may have even done it if you bounced it around a little when moving it). If the drive is physically damaged, the only way that you will know for sure (without a tech looking at it), is to hook up another DVD player (even an external one) and see if it works or not. If the secondary DVD works then it means the original DVD is failing since they will both be using the same software to operate. You may be able to borrow an external DVD drive from someone to test this possibility. You may also buy one from a big store with a good return policy, try it out and diagnose your system, and then return it to the store if you don’t want to keep it. Maybe not the best way to go, but it would tell you if it’s your DVD or your system that is causing the problem.

Having said all of this. You may want to consider paying a kid in the neighborhood $20 to take your system into the shop for you (or with you to do the lifting). I know you don’t want to spend the money (or you would have spent the $14.99, which you can still do), but getting it to the shop is still your best option (other than getting a tech to look at it at your home).

I hope this helped a little. God Bless You.

Bernclay-

Hi MelodyL.

If you are running XP or Vista, the reason you may not be able to see the DVD drive at certain times is most likely due to the auto-play settings. Windows tries to pre-set how it will present specific items in the DVD drive, but if you give it something it is not pre-set for (like a DVD cleaner), or if there is a conflict (like with the decoder) then Windows does not know what to do, and so it does nothing. This is not always the case, but it is a likely possibility.

I can certainly talk you through finding your DVD drive, and possibly even talk you through your overall problem, but it would be impossible in this message board format. We would have to be able to message back and forth in real time, so that I could take you through it step by step and get your feedback. The chat option in this forum may work very well for talking you through this. If that is something you may want to do then just let me know and we can set up a time (I do a lot of this kind of stuff with my family).

I hope this was helpful. God Bless You.

Bernclay-

Hi, first the dvd lens cleaner is a little round disc. Not the same size as a compact disc

You said:

the only way that you will know for sure (without a tech looking at it), is to hook up another DVD player (even an external one) and see if it works or not.

I CAN HOOK UP ANOTHER DVD PLAYER? I have a little portable dvd player that plays my Avatar perfectly. So how do I hook up this player to my computer?

And you mentioned the order in which I installed and uninstalled. Yeah, I first installed NERO, then I uninstalled VLC and Best Media.

Then I rebooted the whole thing.

But honestly, the way it played before Nero was exactly the way it played with VLC. It DID work with VLC but with the jerky movements, and the sound which sounded like gargling.

So if I can hook up my little portable dvd player to my computer, what exactly am I looking for?

Melody

If your result with Nero was exactly the same as with VLC, then I would agree that uninstalling and reinstalling is probably not going to get you anywhere.

As for the hooking up an external DVD. I do not mean hooking up a self contained system that plays on its own with its own software (which is what you have). I mean hooking up another DVD drive that uses the computer to operate in the same way that your internal DVD drive does.

It is these kinds of specifics and questions that would be much simpler to work out in a real time chat.

From everything you have said, I am still inclined to think the same thing that I thought earlier. I think you most likely have a compatibility issue with your decoder that was not reloaded correctly after the motherboard was changed. Or. I think it is possible that your DVD drive is damaged and physically failing.

Not to keep repeating it, but a tech looking at it would be able to fix this up relatively quickly. This only seems complicated because we are diagnosing and giving advice remotely.

If you still want to try to fix it alone (and don‘t want to bring it to the shop), and if you change your mind about spending the $14.99, then your simplest option would be to uninstall all the extra media players (so you are not overtaxing your system (once again, someone in person would be able to easily tell if this is an issue or not)). Reinstall the VLC media player (so you know it‘s a good install (and you can sidestep the Windows media player version 9, 10, 11 issue)). Then download the $14.99 decoder. Remember to reboot in between each step. Remember to reboot after the $14.99 download. Then try it out. If the DVD plays, your good. If it still plays choppy, then at that point I would think it is most likely due to the DVD drive being damaged and failing.

I hope this was helpful. God Bless You.

Bernclay-

I installed the VLC and didn't need to buy a decoder package.

But right now I have all these players installed LOL -
WMP 11
Real player SP
DivX plus
Best Media player
and VLC -- finally one that works for some reason...

Next I'll have to test more dvds to see if they all play in every player or just the vlc works.