CD

If you go to Start then programs then assesories then entertainment and finally to CD player, which will bring up the program to play a cd, can you get it to play. Make sure in the artist box that you have the right drive letter (your cdrom letter) displayed. If you can't get it to play, let us know what error messages you are getting if any or if you hang. You may have lost the association, or your CDROM drivers may be corrupt, or the codecs are messed up. If you can get it to play, the file associated with .cda files needs repair, or perhaps you have a program from Gateway that you prefer.

If it won't play, I would try these two things first. You should run the drivers for your CDROM, and if it says, do you what to keep this file, you will answer "NO". The other thing is to try to repair the codecs by going to control panel, then add remove programs and finally to Windows setup. Under components, remove all the multimedia checkmarks, restart and then put them back.

J dog: I checked and the wire was conected. Also checked device manager, and that was set right.
 
iicontact:
I did what you said, and it played! Now I think the association is wrong. How do I create an association.I forgot and what should it be?  Media play?
Shirley

Your association shd be CD Audio Track, which would point to cdplayer.exe in your machine. The extensions that you would map for this is CDA.

Yeah, but how do I do that? You have to lead me thru it. I don't know how to assign an associatation. Shirley

surlee,to set file assoc's go to start\
settings\folder options,file types\new
types... .Then set description-of-type,
assoc'd extension,content type[MIME].And
then if you'll use 'quickview',etc.

to associate the file.......

click on the file you want to open....then when it asks to "open with"....select the "cd player" from the list and also make sure you have the "open all filesof this type" box ticked  so the problem does keep reoccuring....

good luck

As an aside, also keep your system updated with FREE fixes and enhancements for your Operating System using WindowsUpdate.  You can get updated codecs, Media Player and many multimedia fixes if not already done.

I think those Gateways came with a fancy CD player program. Do you recall a different player in the past with Mixer capability and playlists? The key is to figure out where Gateway put the Exe file for that player. Then use the Open with and BROWSE to that Exe file.

Double click on the speaker icon on the bottom right corner. Check the volume controls and make sure that the volume mute is not selected.

I checked the folders, and 'CD audio' is set to open with 'CDplayer' I didn't have to do any thing. I can't understand why it plays when I open cd player, thru entertainment, but it wont play when I click on the tracks.

My speakers are on, and volume up.

iicontact:
Yes, I am looking for the other CD player.

Adjusted points from 100 to 500

It's working. It opens with the cdplayer. I don't know what happened. I'm not sure I did any thing, but sure apreciate all your help. I upped the points to 500 to split I guess. I don't know how you work that. Let me know if I did something wrong.
Thank you, Shirley

OK. I remember what I did just before your last suggestion. I ran a defrag. Maybe that's why the association was right when I checked it. Shirley

Defrag reorganizes what you have on the disk so that related files are close to each other for faster reading. That wouldn't have repaired the association. Just using the CD player could, but you need to tell us if that is the player you recall using in the past, or if you have another one (like Compaq has there own). Does the screen look the same as it did?

But prior to doing the actual defrag it does a harddrive error check. It could have been that the file cdplayer.exe had an allocation error and was not loading properly.

  -< AJ >-

I think scandisk could have done the trick and I always scandisk before I defrag.

Happy to hear of your resolution, and agree also witb jjcontact's comment on running scandisk prior to defrag since that validates structures and finds crosslinked files and other errors.  You can use the Maintenance Wizard to keep your system tuned and through the settings options modify each element to guard against oddities.  The whole package includes the cleanup function which removes unnecessary files which can cause problems (all of which you can customize to your own needs), scandisk and defrag.

We all have our own experiences, and troubleshooting processes sure can help us find the tools needed to resolve issues.  Sometimes merely rebooting fixes some anomolies, other times when it comes to CD or DVD types of issues, timing can be crucial (spin up time, load time, etc.).  Frequently, though, fragmented disks and cross-linked files are root causes of many problems.  A badly fragmented disc causes performance drains and access time (load time) lags any of which can also cause CD and DVD related problems.

":0)

Happy you're resolved.

Asta