Error Code 39 - Vista - Lost DVD & CD Drives

If I ever get famous I shall use my position to publicise what will become known as Underwood's Second Law of Computing - never start a quick job on a Friday afternoon.

Client rings up, he wants some music put onto his iPod from the backup DVDs we supplied when we ripped his CD collection last summer. As he's off on holiday he wants it done quickly, and his PC has broken. Can we help? Yes, this is one for our great standby program XPlay 3 which enables you to move digital music files onto (or off) an iPod without using iTunes. "Great" says client (who lives in Chelsea) "I'm on the A12, about 10 minutes away, can you do it while I wait?"

Of course, we did, and client went away to his cottage in Suffolk very happy. But afterwards I couldn't use either of the DVD drives on the PC. They were there in the System properties boxes but with a yellow warning triangle next to them. Looking into properties it said something about Code 39, a driver being out of date. I fiddled and fiddled, by which time it was 18:00 and I had to be somewhere else. But it nagged at me all weekend, I put in an hour on Saturday and a couple of hours on Sunday, but no joy.

Today, Monday, I just had to get the DVD Reader / Writers back so I sat down to crack the problem. Which I eventually did. I won't bore you with how but I will tell you why it went wrong.

Connecting an iPod to a computer incurs the risk that it will be grabbed by iTunes and automatically synchronised. Client's iPod should be linked to his PC, even though that's broken. So I didn't want to run the risk that all his music would be lost, specially as he was sitting in my kitchen reading The Times. So to be absolutely safe and sure I deleted iTunes from that PC.

Now I find that a consequence of deleting iTunes in Vista (plus a few other programs according to Microsoft's website) is that the uninstall program deletes key values in Registry. It is Registry that lets your operating system know what is attached, so the computer thought the DVD devices were corrupted.

The fix was achieved by running a downloadable fix from Microsoft, equally it would probably have been fixed when I re-install iTunes for the project that begins tomorrow. So there you have it - if you lose your ROM drives, if you get the yellow triangle and driver error code 39, you know what to do - but most of all, if you plan to attempt a quick computer job, don't do it on Friday afternoon.

Useful Podcasts - at Last.

When I first heard about podcasts I thought they'd be big, really big. I know many clients sign up for them, I know here in the UK The Archers daily radio soap is one of the most popular and that comedian Ricky Gervais has made squillions from his hilarious podcasts.

But somehow I think the technology has not blossomed as I'd expected.

Anyway, I came across a useful collection of podcasts from respectable academic sources under the title "50 Terrific iTunes U Lectures to Get You Through the Economic Crisis". Worth taking a look.

iPod Wins the Cup

Last Sunday Tottenham played the all-conquering Manchester United at Wembley. Despite being a lifelong Spurs fan I didn't watch (partly due to family commitments, mainly because this is another major sporting event on pay-per-view), perhaps couldn't bear to watch as given recent football form I expected Man U to regally thump Spurs.

I checked to find the final score, hoping it would be less than 5-0, only to find it was 0-0 and into extra time. So I switched on the radio and listened. When it went to penalties I was sure Spurs would lose, and they did. Then on Monday morning the sports pages were saying Manchester had won with the help of an iPod. How?

My first thought was the goalkeeper had used his to block out the sound of opposing fans trying to put him off but no, apparently Manchest had used an iPod to show their goalkeeper footage of Spurs players taking penalties, I assume this gave him an inside track on their preference to hit the ball to the left or right. Sure enough Tim Foster cleverly anticipated a couple of kicks and the rest, as they say, is history.

Now we at podServe have converted a lot of video to run on iPods, very good it is too. But one thing has always bothered me, and I was remined of this last night by a CNet posting on ripping videos / movies in iTunes, and that is copyright. I don't think it is a legal right to copy video onto an iPod if the source material is commercial.

So here's my issue - why aren't Man U being sued for copyright breach? My guess is that the footage they had stored for Foster was clipped off TV broadcasts. If it was then I think a little naughty has been committed - unless you know otherwise. I'd love to hear.