How do I burn a CD on Windows XP?
I want to burn some music files onto a CD to play in my car stereo. My computer has a CD burner. Do I need special software like Nero, or can Windows XP burn CDs by itself? What's the difference between an audio CD and a data CD? Will my car stereo play either kind?
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Make sure you have the latest drivers from the actual manufacturer's website, not whatever Windows Update gives you. Video card drivers especially — nVidia and ATI release new ones every month and they make a real difference.
5 Answers
Make sure you have the latest drivers from the actual manufacturer's website, not whatever Windows Update gives you. Video card drivers especially — nVidia and ATI release new ones every month and they make a real difference.
Have you run a full virus scan AND a spyware scan? They're different things. Norton or McAfee for viruses, plus Ad-Aware AND Spybot for spyware. Run all of them. A slow computer is infected until proven otherwise in my experience.
Definitely back up your important files before trying any fixes. I learned this the hard way when I lost 3 years of photos trying to fix a simple problem. Get an external hard drive or burn DVDs of your important stuff first.
I always tell people: buy a UPS battery backup. A $40 one will protect your PC from power surges and brownouts that slowly kill your hardware. Lost a motherboard to a thunderstorm once. Never again.
Honestly at some point a clean reinstall of Windows fixes more than any amount of tinkering. XP gets crufty after a couple years. Back up your files, find your product key, and do a fresh install. It'll feel like a brand new machine.
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