I have an emachines 190 with Samsung SM-348B combo drive and running XP Pro. When I bought the machine it had XP home and to cut a long story short, I formatted and ended up loading a copy of pro instead. The machine came with PowerDVD but since reloading, I can't play dvd's on the machine. I also can't work on 1 cd-r and then swop and work on another. If I work and save on a cd called 'files' for instance, if I then put in a cd-r called 'games', it comes up on 'My computer' as 'Files'. Does anyone have any idea why the drive is not recognising the name of the new cd and also whether there is anyway I can get Powerdvd back without haveing to spend out for it? The only way I can get the machine to recognise the name of the cd is to have the cd in the drive when I boot up. I'm sorry if something like this has been posted elsewhere. If it has, please point me in the right direction. Many thanks. :confused:

Your issue sounds complicated so I need some more info to determine the cause, I have a guess on what this could be already.

1: After installing XP Pro you are now missing PowerDVD? If this is the case no you cant get it back unless you have the install disc for PowerDVD, I suggest seeking free DVD software from the net - search with google.
2: The CD called files, is it a CD-R or CD-RW? Also, is this a new burned disc after the XP Pro install? What software did you use to burn the disc?
To me, this is only guessing, your CD called "files" is being used like a floppy disK, meaning you can add a file to it - and then come back later and add more files - is this the case? If so, your system is still reading the Table Of Contents of that disc and this is why the games disc is not being seen correctly. When you enter the "files" disc into the drive, a small icon should appear beside the clock on the lower right hand corner of the screen, do you have this? If so you should be able to right-click and see an option regarding eject disc - these types of burned discs need to be ejected this way each time your finished with it.

Hi Irish Support
1: When I bought the pc, it had XP home and powerdvd pre-installed. For various reasons I had to format the pc and as I had only been given a restore cd, I couldn't reload everything. So instead I loaded XP pro. The only cds I got with the pc were 2 restore cds.
2: The cds I use are cd-rw mostly. But the problem happens when I get cds from friends. I have been given a cd-r recently. I put it in the drive, explored it and all was ok. As soon as I wanted to add to it, I was told I had read only access to the cd. I then added one of my own and same thing, I wasn't able to add to it.
As to the icon in the lower right corned. I have never seen one. Does it look like a cd? Am at work at the moment so not in front of my pc so will look tonight and see if the icon is there. :madhack:

Unfortunately if you have restore discs there is not much you can do about PowerDVD unless you reinstall Windows using the restore disc. Its best that you run a search in Google for free DVD software, you should find something out there.

It does sound like your friends CD has not been fully 'closed' meaning that he/she can add more files at a later date. Now, in theory you can add files to that disc but will only work fully if you have the exact same software as he/she does on their PC. Now your drive thinks that you are using that CD-R every time you put a disc in the drive, the software needs to be told to eject the disc so it can free up the drive. The icon can be different for each burning software - the best thing to do is put your friends CD back into the drive (leave it for a minute) and check all the icons on the bottom of the screen, if there is any reference to CD's or burning software you should find an 'eject disc' option. If not go into MY Computer, right click on drive letter that has the disc and try ejecting this way.

Let me know how it works out - Good Luck.