Gaaaaaaaaa!!!
For three goddamm fucking days I’ve been trying to work out a way to transfer large files (mostly films and music) from my old desktop PC – aka the Jaguar – to Sexy Beast.
First I tried setting up a home network between the two of them… six hours and two bottles of wine later I was close to a nervous breakdown. Decided to toss that idea and get a USB memory stick … easy peasy, right? Just copy the stuff from Jag and copy that onto SB. Except … some of those things were films that I also wanted to copy onto dvd so I could watch them on the television via the dvd player, rather than on the computer.
But it seems there was no way no fucking day was this going to happen. Either SB doesn’t have a dvd burner (could this be possible?) or I totally messed up how to copy stuff. In any case, it’s been three goddamm days of this and I’m about ready to throw all the computers off the balcony!
What am I doing wrong??? 
casa azahar 
Oh, I am so sorry…And I am not able to help because I know nothing about this kind of stuff…I hear you, though…
LikeLike
Don’t ask me! When stuff like this happens in this house my customary response is, “JIM!!” then he comes and makes it work. Thank goodness for inhouse tech support. I told him the other day that he was not allowed to die before me.
LikeLike
I sympathise hugely Az and all I can say is, have you tried a mac? I used to get into a towering rage a couple of times a week with PCs but I’ve never had my mac give me any trouble…
Anyone else hear the sound of famous last words in the above…??
LikeLike
Umm, when I run into this sort of problem, I do the unthinkable. I read the manual. If I can find it.
LikeLike
It’s the bogons.
Weird evil beings created by the bad energy coming out from computers.
That’s what Geek says when I complain about something computerish, and he’s not in mind for being unpaid support.
You can always try to restart.
That’s another thing my son always tells.
Sometimes it does the trick.
LikeLike
Manual? Wassat?
LikeLike
az, it is certainly not Manuel from Barcelona 🙂
LikeLike
So bogon is Swedish for gremlin then, dq.
LikeLike
Ha! Did you know that when they show Faulty Towers in Spain, Manuel is Italian?
The problem with manuals is that even just thinking about them my eyes start to glaze over and my brain goes dead. I don’t even have to look at them for this to happen.
Nog’s take is that they are either written by people who have never used the item in question or they are so familiar with it that they tend to leave very important bits out, on the assumption that people should already know most of it anyhow.
I’m really not that stupid when it comes to computers. My first one – the Dinosaur – was a very old second-hand thing given to me by a friend that I regularly had to take apart to jiggle certain bits back into place so it would keep working. Which was good because the innards of a CPU box became very familiar to me and so it was never anything scary to take some bits out and put other bits in.
But laptops are a whole other kettle o’ fish. And anyhow, I think my problem at the moment is a software one, nothing that needs me ripping physical bits out and replacing them – and a good thing too.
SB just won’t recognise when I am trying to burn a DVD. Even though it says right on the side of her that she has a DVD Multi Recorder. So, WTF?
Whenever I try to copy a DVD I only get CD audio options.
LikeLike
Az have you tried searching for help forums on the web? I just put in ‘PC windows help forums’ into my search engine and a load of sites came up. You could maybe put in something similar or more specific for your computer(s). The reason I’m suggesting this is that in the past I have received really good help from Mac forums on the web. Some of these places are frequented by clever geeky people who like nothing better than helping people out for free. You join up and put in the details of your computer(s) as your profile, and post a question.
LikeLike
Yeah I know, but help forums tend to have the same effect on my that manuals do … I go all cross-eyed before I’m half-way through a sentence.
And yes, I know it doesn’t make sense, but whenever I get a lot of printed geeky information placed before my ungeeky purblind eyes I give up after two words.
I need a person to just come over here and say – this, this and then this – and then no problem.
What can I say? I’m a ‘hands on’ kinda gal.
LikeLike
I’ll tell you, the manuals and the instructions that I have ever come across cause my eyes to glaze over too. I agree with az, they are written by people who are so familiar with the system that they leave important bits out, bits that seem perfectly obvious to them but maybe aren’t to a novice.
I can remember a problem I had with double clicking way back when, and it turned out I wasn’t clicking fast enough. But I had no clue as to what the problem was, and it was very frustrating for me.
This is probably why I have no extra widgets and things on my blog. Just the basics.
LikeLike
One wordpress widget you might like to install, hmh, is the ‘recent comments’ one. You can choose up to 15 of them. It’s quite a nice way when visiting a blog to see ‘where the action is’, you know?
Anyhow, it turns out that I’ve got to download software in order to get my dvd burner to work. Like – wtf? Why sell a computer with a dvd burner and not have the appropriate software already there? I have about half a dozen CD audio programmes I can use to burn CDs. Gaaaa!
LikeLike
That seems to be a common problem…
I’ve got my home PC about 2½ years, and yesterday dragonprincess wanted to burn a DVD. The built in programme could do anything but that…
Luckily Geek was at home, “did something including downloadning from the web” and the DVD was burned.
Computers….
LikeLike
Did you check that the media you are using is compatible with your burner? It happens sometimes. If you’ve got Nero with the DVD Burner, you’ll have tough luck creating a video DVD, because of no option to create em. You should use a video encoding application that also burns to dVD’s. If you search a bit with google, you’ll find some good free ones. 🙂
LikeLike
Darn, didn’t read your comment. lol. Thats the power of OEM for you! lol. Get DVD Shrink btw. It’s good. 🙂
LikeLike
Hi Ashish – long time no see. 🙂
You know what? It turns out I do have a programme for DVDs on SB called InterVideo WIN-DVD Creator. So I tried it out and even managed to get something onto the ‘project’ thingy, which then copied, formatted and burned the DVD automatically.
And it even worked on the normal DVD player!
Except … the image was stretched across the middle third of the TV screen (the remaining 2/3 of the screen, above and below the image, was black.
I give up, ya hear me? I GIVE UP!!!
LikeLike
That sounds like it COULD be a setting on the TV
LikeLike
Nah, it does the same thing when I play it on SB … something to do with the ‘automatic formating’. Gaaaaa.
LikeLike
Ah – ok
LikeLike
long time no see
I’m hoping the “busy” excuse still works? 😛 No? Sorry about that. I’ve been feeling down for months and haven’t been hot on visiting blogs partly also because of my net connection having problems. Add work, study and sickness into that and you know why. lol. Hopefully I can manage now. 🙂
You know what? It turns out I do have a programme for DVDs on SB called InterVideo WIN-DVD Creator.
Ah, you have intervideo’s one? As far as I know, thats mostly what the correct procedure is. My guess is that Intervideo messed it up while writing. The most likely problem is the aspect ratio or something.. I have a DVD burner but never had the chance to write a dvd to it because I broke the dvd burner a week after I got it and it doesn’t even read dvd’s now, lol.[in fact I don’t even own a video DVD due to said DVD burner not running any..]
Looking forward to more!
LikeLike