I have been using Vista 64 business for some time now, and from time to time my optical drives would disappear. I read the article in this forum detailing the reasons for this, and Microsoft even tells how to fix the problem. Something about upper and lower filters in the registry, etc.

But the bottom line is that this issue is only one of many in Vista that need to be "fixed" Therefore, Microsoft, without much fanfare, decided to release a program that takes care of all the little "problems" that are in Vista. The program's name is Called Microsoft Fixit, and you can read about it and download it here:

http://support.microsoft.com/fixit?fi=50027#tab0

I can nl longer fix my optical drive problems with the upper and lower filter fix (why I cannot say) However, whenever the problem pops up (which is every time I burn a DVD), I run Fixit again, and the drives come back.

This problem has something to do with SATA drives and Roxio, Nero, and various other DVD burning softwares that use the "Rapid" software at the core of Liquid's DVd burning engine.

Thanks for the link Doug, useful little tool.

mjolnarn:

Thanks for the link Doug, useful little tool.

It was your post about Vista 64 that got me going with Liquid. But the little problem with the optical drives you mentioned in your post, and Microsoft's answer to it using RegEfit, was just not enough for me. Only the Fixit tool actually fixes the problem.

But apparently the tool fixes lots of other problems in Vista. I highly recommend running it even if you don't have the drive problem.

moodman:

It was your post about Vista 64 that got me going with Liquid.

An honour of course, and a pleasure for me, I cannot say enough good words about Vista 64, maybe with 8 or more gigs of ram, I am also seeing lots of the big guys at the Media Composer forum sharing my opinions.

mjolnarn:

moodman:

It was your post about Vista 64 that got me going with Liquid.

An honour of course, and a pleasure for me, I cannot say enough good words about Vista 64, maybe with 8 or more gigs of ram, I am also seeing lots of the big guys at the Media Composer forum sharing my opinions.

Tomas,

Interesting that you and I like V64 so much. I recently had an issue with it that was causing many blue screens. I traced it to a bad memory stick (I used to have four sticks with a total of 6GB of RAM)

Here's a question for you, if you know. I took out the bad stick, so now I have 5MB. But I no longer get the BIOS message that the memory I have is dual channel. I forget what it is, but it shows up as some other kind of memory mode in the computer. What I would like to know is, if not having that other stick is going to slow down my momory that remains? Would it be better to take out 1GB so I only have 4GB of DUAL channel, versus leaving it in and having 5GB of non-dual channel memory?

What is your opinion?

Doug, I have had Corsair to send me a new pair of my lifetime warranty mems a year ago, mems work in pairs, so if one is broken, you change both anyhow and one of my mems broke.

So, as thay work in pairs, or, on the new motherboards, as triples, you cannot run them in any other way, if you do that, your system will become very slow.

Also check the manual for your mbo or just look at the slots for the mems, it uses to be colourmarked for the slots that belong together, on my Gigabyte board, slot 1 and 3 is one pair whilst slot 2 and 4 is the other pair.

Mems on the same pair, should, as said, be of the same type and brand, best is to buy them in pairs and change both if one breaks.

hth

mjolnarn:

Doug, I have had Corsair to send me a new pair of my lifetime warranty mems a year ago, mems work in pairs, so if one is broken, you change both anyhow and one of my mems broke.

So, as thay work in pairs, or, on the new motherboards, as triples, you cannot run them in any other way, if you do that, your system will become very slow.

Also check the manual for your mbo or just look at the slots for the mems, it uses to be colourmarked for the slots that belong together, on my Gigabyte board, slot 1 and 3 is one pair whilst slot 2 and 4 is the other pair.

Mems on the same pair, should, as said, be of the same type and brand, best is to buy them in pairs and change both if one breaks.

hth

You are probably right. The pair that went bad was Mushkin. I think they have a lifetime warranty too. I will contact them. Thanks.

In case anyone uses Mushkin components, I have to commend them for issuing me an RMA no questions asked. If you are considering memory, I recommend Mushkin brand.

Thought I would inform anyone who is interested that I received the replacement memory sticks from Mushkin no questions asked. That's the way companies OUGHT ot honor their warranties.

Just a thought here, but I would like to ask anyone who has had a GOOD experience with companies to post their experiences here. That might help some of us who are making computer and software decisions to decide based on which companies treat them the best. I know its a huge factor in MY buying decisions.