I’m not sure if this is a Hardware or Software problem. I apologize if I have posted this in the wrong forum.

When I burn a CD from the music on my windows media player, the burned CD will only play on a computer! So that means my burner is working correct? They will not play on my stereo, or anyone else’s CD players, including the newer ones. So the mystery is, why are my burned CD’s only playing in a computer???

It's been awhile since I burned a CD, but when I did, I did not have this problem. I had always used windows media player in the past.

INFO: I have dial up and I use windows XP. I tried burning with windows media player, and real player, and both will only play on a computer. I’m burning on audio and not mp3, and I’m using regular CD-R’s. All my music is in wma format. I do not have mp3 anywhere on my computer, and I have never downloaded any music from the Internet if that helps any. I made sure the box was checked on the C drive to send the files to the temporary files folder to be burned on the disc. I looked at my Device Manager and it says my burner is working properly. The selection I have on my properties for burning are WMA, WMA (Variable bit rate), WMA Lossless, and MPEG Layer-3. There is no selection for WAV (Windows Audio File) There is no free space or used space on my burner, but it shows this same thing for the DVD player and my Floppy drive, so I don’t think that has nothing to do with it. I ran the Hardware Update Wizard, and it said it could not find a better match for my CD-RW than the software already installed. I tried cleaning my Disc (Disc Cleanup) and I ran the Disc Defragmenter to see if that would free up some space if that was the problem. All this, and I still haven’t figured this out.

I went to the windows media player site, and it talked about how it converts .wma to PCM (pulse code modulation) in order for it to play on a regular CD player, I assume this is what is meant when it “Finalizes� or “Closes� the disc. Is there a way to check my burner to see if it is doing this before I attempt to burn another disc? It says its working properly. Are there measures I can take to make sure my burner is working correctly before I attempt to burn another CD other than just going by it telling me its working properly?

I was in Hurricane Katrina, and have moved away from there. All of my belongings and CD's are still in storage there. Luckily I had put the CD’s I bought at the store on my computer, or I wouldn’t have anything to listen to. But as most of you know, computer speakers kinda suck, so it would be nice to be able to burn a few so I could listen to them on the little stereo someone gave me.

I would really appreciate if someone could walk me through this. I don’t know what’s going on! I have done everything I know to do. Please Help!
Thanks a bunch.

~ladybelle~