I'm new to this and have read almost all the threads on how to burn dvd's and I've tried all suggestions but I'm still not getting this. I'm considering returning the burner and the 10pk of dvd+rw and finding another hobby! I bought an LG GSA-5120D 12X Super Multi External dvd burner (records and plays all formats). My computer is a 2002 Compaq 6020CA with Windows XP Home Edition with a built-in dvd-rom drive and cd-writer. My problem is that the computer plug and play recognizes the burner as a cd-writer and not a dvd-writer. In device Manager it has the above as the description of the burner but when I click on Properties it states it is a cd-writer. When I run dvd shrink 3.2 and link it to Nero (newest version) the "burn" icon is shaded (which means I can't click on the burn button). I've followed all of Scuba Pete's directions but still can't get this damn thing to work. I'm also using Memorex dvd+rw but I've also tried the Verbatrim ones as well and I don't want to go and buy another friggin' brand and waste more money. I've tried "disabling" then "enabling" the burner in device manager without success and now my built-in dvd-rom drive can't even play normal dvd's now. The friggin' Windows help is no help (tells me to select properties and assign the dvd-rom drive a format preference which I don't even know what dvd-video extension is). I've spent the last two days trying to fix up the mess that this burner has made to my system (now I'm getting a blue screen telling me to do a chkdsk because something is wrong with my computer which I've never received before). I figure with an external drive I'd have no problems because your just plug it into the IEEE1394 extension and away it should go (it also included USB 2.0 but I only have USB 1.1) which is why I used the IEEE1394 cable which my computer has. DVD shrink works great in compressing the dvd-video movie with all extras but the problem is it can't write to the burner because of the afore-mentioned. Oh I've also updated the firmware for the burner I downloaded from the LG website.
Did you have the proper driver installed with the external burner? Also, try to plug the external burner into another PC to see if it actually works.
