Dell complaints

[dgoldsmith]

Hi! Earlier this month, I posted to an old thread about HDD error codes I was getting on my Inspiron 6000. I was told the drive was toast and have replaced it. However, I have kept the old drive and got this contraption that lets me access it through USB; much (most?) of the drive appears to be readable. Of course my new drive doesn't have the OEM DVD codec(s), but the old drive of course does; I recognize they may be corrupt or unreadable, but what file names should I be looking for and where? Thanks!

DG

[diashto]

DVD Codecs should have been installed with windows.. its unusual that they're not. You might have to install a dvd player software, but Windows Media Player should take care of that too, if you upgrade to 11.

Failing that, you can download this:

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/K_Lite_Codec_Pack.htm

It has just about every codec you're going to run into, and a couple different players that will work.

[dgoldsmith]

Thanks for your reply! For the record, your information contradicts both my personal experience (I was still unable to play commercial DVD's even after installing all Windows XP Pro updates and WMP 11) and the information at this (admittedly old, except for my unanswered post) thread at Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/community/newsgroups/WindowsMedia/default.mspx?dg=microsoft.public.windowsmedia&tid=5f377814-4d49-4dd8-b73e-d5aae8ac4969&cat=en-us-wma-nwsgrps-gen&lang=en&cr=US&sloc=en-us&m=1&p=1&mid=c7944818-7f33-4adc-9c32-1357c0ee853e
However, for anyone experiencing the same problem who might be reading this in the future, I was able to find many codecs for free (incl. one that enabled my OEM DVD player to play commercial DVD's - haven't tested it yet on home-burned DVD's) at:
http://www.codecguide.com/
(I downloaded the K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 3.6.2). But thanks anyway.

DG