Well somehow i downloaded 4.5c just yesterday, as my software sez... Help>About> "4.5c build 91"

I guess I could look into getting another burner, but this one is only a few months old... hmmm? May I ask which burner you use?

Ahh, looks like you've got DVDA Studio 4.5c, and I've got DVDA Pro 4.5b. Confusing!
My burner is a Sony bulk OEM, $40 at MicroCenter. No problems burning so far.
Surprising it won't let you get to the burn options, will it at least let you Prepare the project so you could burn it in another app such as Nero?

when you hit "make disc" it crashes, doesn't get to the option screen to prepare or burn? If it does, try doing just prepare (or burn, if you're doing prepare).

Nope, can't prepare either... (this option must come up after clicking "make disc"), therefore can't prepare.

I'm going to go to Nero's site and look for some new drivers for my burner. (weird that nothing on the hp site exists for this burner??), The software that came with it is nero.

Welll, there really aren't separate drivers for DVD burners -- that's built into windows. There might be firmware updates, probably from whomever made the drive for HP -- don't know that they'd have any effect -- but you could check by googling or over at cdfreaks to find out who makes the drive, & then checking their support section at their web site, or looking for unofficial firmware files via cdfreaks etc.

That said, if you can't get to prepare the dvd to hdd, perhaps you could check the preferences and see what related options are available? I know the full version of DVDA has the option to not refer to DVDA's drive database, and maybe that sort of thing would help. Otherwise I'd think the problem was either with the DVDA install or else some sort of conflict with other software on your system.

For troubleshooting: Has DVDA ever worked properly? If it has and now doesn't what changed -- i.e. was any software or updates installed?

If it's never worked, maybe the first step would be to uninstall the SCS software, then reboot and re-install -- that's probably the 1st thing the techs will ask you to do anyway, & it might fix things. From there if still not working I'd personally suspect some other, video-related software installed on your system, though tracking it down can be difficult. You can also check for things like DEP [Control Panel -> System -> Advanced Tab -> Performance Options -> Data Execution Prevention]... I believe I've read in the forums here of that causing something similar on a couple of systems, but I'm going by memory & it has no effect on my systems here. Search and check it out, using keywords like freeze & stall besides crash.

try physically disconnecting your DVD drive too. If DVDA still can't get the the "prepare" menu, then you've eliminated anything related to the DVD drive (drivers, firmware, etc)

good points all guys... thanks. i'll try these things and we'll see!

good points all guys... thanks. i'll try these things and we'll see!

BTW... the software never has worked properly and I have uninstalled and reinstalled. I just can't figure out why I can't even look at what either program (Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 8.0d OR DVDA 4.5c) sees as far as the multimedia device (ie. HELP>ABOUT>MULTIMEDIA DEVICES)

FWIW -- thoughts..
I had an hp machine a while back - and the burner on that was cack from day one. Eventually got round to getting it replaced under warranty. In the mean time, I had an USB external that I used instead. If burners struggle to read a disc, then they really can bog down a system to the point where everything stops responding, and they can also get caught in CRC loops and stop the disc from ejecting. It's definitely worth disconecting your drive, and see if you can borrow an external for a quick test..
Firmware updates are possible, if you can identify what your drive is..
Also, there is a chance that it is configured into the wrong mode (PIO as opposed to DMA - I don't find HP the smartest company for setting up particulars, except for adding in all their uneccessary bumpf).

FINALLY figured it out. I have 2 drives (internal) one is an older cd burner, and the one I was trying to use the newer dvd burner. I finally went in to windows device manager and disabled the older drive... that did it! Not sure why, but at this point.. whatever! I actually no longer need the older drive because the newer one will do exactly the same and of course more.

Thanks for all your help guys... the advice got me to this point.

Glad you figured it out!
If you have two drives on the same IDE bus, and one of them is set for P10, everything on the bus will run P10, even if the other drive is set UDMA. Of course, that is not going to make a happy environment for burning a dvd.

I am running DVDA 4.5b on Windows XP x64 Pro.

I am getting a Windows "blue screen of death" crash as soon as I hit "Make DVD" on any project.

The error message is:

A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage

to your computer.



PFN_LIST_CORRUPT



If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen,

restart you computer. If this screen appears again, follow

these steps:



Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed.

If this is a new installation, ask your hardware of software manufacturer

for any windows updates you might need.



If problems continue, disable or remove any newly installed hardware

or software. Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing.

If you need to use safe mode to remove or disable components restart

your computer, press F8 to select Advanced Startup Options, and then select Safe Mode.



Technical information:



*** STOP: 0x0000004E (0x000000000000009A, 00000000000009012, 0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000002)

I can solve the problem by uninstalling or disabling my DVD writer, which is a Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-212. I then re-enable it to burn the project with Nero.

The problem is not solved by ticking "Skip drive database; autodetect drive capabilities" in the DVDA preferences.

I am also getting exactly the same error in DVDA 3.0c but in this case it is not solved by disabling the DVD writer.

Any ideas?

I will put in a support ticket but they're not likely to be interested as I'm running x64.