Tech: D drive cannot find app?

Subject: BS: D drive cannot find app?
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 24 Mar 11 - 10:43 AM

I sorted a web problem out (with Mcat help) for a group of ladies who are raising money for handicapped children locally and just as I finished the "boss" lady brought her disabled daughter's laptop in and said her child was very upset because the D drive icon had disappeared and she couldn't play her CDs. She is running Win Vista Home premium.

Well, I had the same thing happen some time ago on mine and got the answer from Mcat experts which I had copied and kept for reference, so no problem.

Deleted some filters as before and rebooted, hey presto D icon back, disc player whizzing round as normal. Inserted disc, went to Computer, double clicked icon, small window appears with "D: cannot find app" message.

I checked hardware and it says CD/DVD drive working properly.

Please can someone explain what it means and is there a simple solution?

Subject: RE: Tech: D drive cannot find app?
From: Bernard
Date: 24 Mar 11 - 08:46 PM

It probably means the default media player has moved or is missing, or the setup is pointing to the wrong location.

I haven't a Vista machine to test it out on, but with XP you RIGHT click on the drive's icon in 'My Computer', select 'properties', and look in the 'Autoplay' tab to see what the default is.

Try pointing it at Windows Media Player, which is good enough to play CDs, or look to see if any 'special' software has been installed (possibly iTunes) which has hijacked the default and not restored it after being uninstalled.

Subject: RE: Tech: D drive cannot find app?
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 25 Mar 11 - 04:39 AM

Thanks Bernard, I'll have a look, I noticed that she did have iTunes on there so that could well be something to do with it.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: D drive cannot find app?
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 25 Mar 11 - 07:34 AM

That's if I can find the damn thing in Vista. I've always had XP.

Subject: RE: Tech: D drive cannot find app?
From: Bernard
Date: 25 Mar 11 - 11:52 AM

I think they call 'My Computer' (XP and before) 'Computer' (Vista) for some obscure reason!!

I can always lend you my lump 'ammer...

Subject: RE: Tech: D drive cannot find app?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 25 Mar 11 - 03:42 PM

Right clicking on the empty drive will get you a Properties option, but it will only show hardware information for an empty drive (at least in my Vista).

An autoplay/autorun file may be on a disk that's in the optical drive.

With a disk in place, you should be able to use Windows Explorer to look at the files on the drive.

Look for a file with a name that starts with "auto" and right click on the file, to look at Properties for the file. The autoplay or autorun can name a program to start that's expected to be on your computer or may only name a "first file" on the disk. If it's the latter, or if the file properties don't tell you anything, you'll need to figure out from the file type (file extension) of the individual files on the disk what kind of files are there, to guess what program the computer should turn on to run (play) that file type.

A more direct approach that may help:

In Vista, "Start | Settings| Control Panel" should show an entry called "Autoplay."

(I use "classic view" in Control Panel, so the names may be different if you use the default "Vista Funky" view, but in any case they'll all be different than in WinXP because Microsoft decided it's more important to have "cute" names than names that tell you anything.)

At the top of the Autoplay panel, there should be a check box that says "Use Autoplay for all media and devices" or something similar. If the box is unchecked, Vista may not play disks automatically - for any type of disk, or it may if it decides you're not smart enough to be in charge. (Program install disks will usually autostart, or at least ask if you wnat them to, even with the box unchecked; but sometimes they don't regardless of the setting.)

In the sections at Autoplay below the check box, you can choose what program should open "multimedia" (audio or video etc) disks. There should be "drop down" lists of the programs available on the computer to pick the settings available for each of the kinds of files that may be on an optical disk.

Sections that have never been set may show "choose a response" or something similar. It is not necessary to have anything in all the boxes, but you'll probably want to choose a program for "audio and video." Windows Multimedia Player is probably a good choice if you haven't installed something you like better.

Once any entry has been made you can't get back to "no entry at all," and must choose something else from the drop down lists. "Ask every time" and "Take no action" are other options you may like if you don't want all kinds of disks to always run automatically. (Results with any choice may be variable due to possible "autoplay/autorun" files on individual disks, that can sometimes override the settings you make here.)

If a valid program is named for the kind of disk in the drive, you may still encounter disks that need a specific "codec" that isn't loaded on the machine. Vista normally detects that problem and asks if you want Vista to find the one that's needed. Some codecs are usually in install/setup files left on the machine at installation, but Vista can "search the web" if one is missing that isn't locally available, if you have a web connection openable for it to do the search. In most cases just letting Vista fetch what's needed will work okay.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: D drive cannot find app?
From: pavane
Date: 25 Mar 11 - 04:54 PM

Does XP Home just not like DVD drives?

Some while ago, my D drive disappeared from the list in My Computer, and would not work when I put a disk into it.

Recently, my Windows got totally corrupted, and my technician (i.e., son), not knowing this, put a windows CD in the drive and booted up - worked fine, and he reinstalled Windows from it - the drive now seems ok, and it looks like WIN XP (Home) had somehow just mislaid it - for a couple of years I have been coping without, assuming it was broken!

Subject: RE: Tech: D drive cannot find app?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 25 Mar 11 - 05:35 PM

I've found rather erratic performance with optical drives in both WinXP and Vista.

1. The settings (Autorun) described above for Vista sometimes seem to get changed mysteriously, and/or often no settings are entered when the OS is set up. There's noting in the setup to tell you that you need to go there, although I've found 11 different methods of telling Vista to "take me to section XXXX in Control Panel" for the same XXXX section, but up to SEVEN different names for XXXX are used in the various places that send you to the same place - which isn't named the same as any of the XXXX names used in the links.

2. There have been several changes to disk standards during the past couple of years and they seem never to be announced except to the people who create them. A couple of the changes that have required BIOS updates can result in breaking the hardware if a program tries to burn to the new version on a drive that still has the old limits in BIOS. No "burner program" ever tells you what version of the standards must be used, which wouldn't matter much because the standards books have all been "out of print" for about then years and you can't get one.

3. Optical drives are so "generic" now that many OEM drives and some "aftermarket" ones often don't even have a manufacturer's name on them, so it's hard to find where to get correct BIOS updates if/when needed.

4. Optical drives are incompatible with having cats in the same vicinity, due to the "fuzz" that gets on the lenses. Other kinds of filth can be brushed off with a "cleaner disk" but cat fuzz just embeds around the laser lens and sticks tighter. (I'm not sure that gerbils are any more "optical drive compatible," and thus far I've had little success in establishing a satisfying bonding with pet toads or other "hairless" critters.)

John

Subject: RE: Tech: D drive cannot find app?
From: pavane
Date: 26 Mar 11 - 06:04 AM

Thanks John.
(don't have a cat, though)

Subject: RE: Tech: D drive cannot find app?
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 26 Mar 11 - 06:14 AM

Thanks folks, I'll try the above and if all else fails, Bernard, I might take up your offer of the lump 'ammer. :-)

John

Subject: RE: Tech: D drive cannot find app?
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 26 Mar 11 - 10:57 AM

Try a book dude.

No electricity, hardware or capatability required.

Sincerly,
Gargoyle

A librarian could help if you have problems.

Subject: RE: Tech: D drive cannot find app?
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 26 Mar 11 - 02:35 PM

I am not an expert at all, but I read somewhere that uninstalling the driver causes Windows to reinstall it, but forget its internal list of failures which may have made it sulky before. More details should be easy to find on the net.

Subject: RE: Tech: D drive cannot find app?
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 28 Mar 11 - 07:11 AM

John you are a genius!

Just got back, followed your instructions to the letter and hey presto, it worked so it is now up and running.

Not sure what I did, but I think it was the settings that were messed up.

Anyway, Lucy (the owner of the laptop) and her mother would like me to thank you for solving their problem and tell you that they are very grateful and if you ever come to the Yorkshire Moors you would be entitled to "mates rates" on one of their celebrated holiday cottages.

They also made me (wouldn't take no for an answer) take some beef cuts from their herd of highland cattle , mother said she would send you some but it might "go off" a bit before you got it and she's sure there is plenty of beef in Kansas.

Thanks again.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: D drive cannot find app?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 29 Mar 11 - 04:56 AM

wilbyhillbilly -

The solution was probably an accident, but floundering around among the bits and bytes is always good fun.

And there is plenty of good beef in Kansas, with quite a bit of it being the edible kind; although recently it seems there's probably more than necessary of the other kind 'round the middle of most of us who live here.

John