Well, I finally got DVD running with full surround sound on my PC. I have mentioned this in passing in the past few columns, but I thought it would be good to summarize the process and results here. You may not be specifically interested in DVD, but the column illustrates some of the problems in dealing with computer vendors and software firms, so it might be of more general interest.
Why is computer DVD important? Why is it important to have the full surround sound? I don't know! I guess it was just a quest, a challenge, a windmill to tilt at. Don't ask me, OK!
The first lesson is that if you buy a new PC with specific components, they may not all function like you would have expected. You buy a DVD drive, a sound card, and speakers. You expect them to work together to achieve the desired result. What you will probably find when you get the new PC is that in fact the DVD player plays. You can put DVDs in, and see the movie on the display screen. But when you listen to the sound, the center channel speaker is not playing and you don't get the full surround effect.
You call your PC vendor, and they are not very helpful. The problem is that it is really not under their control - the complex interactions of Operating System and drivers often do not product the correct function. Sometimes there are deficiencies in the OS - sometimes the drivers are not well written or have bugs - sometimes the drivers are just missing certain functions. Your PC vendor suggests that you check with the specific component vendor, perhaps on their website.
The vendor of the specific component doesn't know you from Adam. You are not a direct customer of theirs, nor did they generate direct revenue from you - only indirectly through your PC vendor. So their inclination to help you is limited. If you spend a half hour on the phone with one of their tech support people, you probably chewed up all the profit they made on the component and perhaps a lot more. These days its even hard to get a real live tech support person at all - most companies now prefer to work via e-mail or e-mail equivalent on their website.
Now comes the bad part. In order to get you off their backs in the shortest possible time, the vendors usually reply with a long list of things to do. These range from reinstalling the drivers to (and I am not kidding here) reinstalling Windows. To them, there are two positive aspects of doing this: Firstly, you may not choose to do all this stuff (actually, a wise choice) and just go away. Secondly, you actually do give them a better platform to debug the problem when you reinstall all the stuff.
So, you reinstall and then get back to them when the problem still occurs. At this point, they just give up and you are still left without a functioning component. What is worse is that now you may be left with other problems due to incorrect installation of the OS and drivers. Drivers are so complex these days that errors in reinstallation often occur.
So, what to do? Do not reinstall any stuff that the component vendors recommend, except perhaps for their own particular drivers - and only then if they explain exactly how to do it. Probably the best answer I can give to you is to be informed. Start by bringing up the best web search engine - Google. Google now contains an archive of newgroups, which are your best source of information. Go to http://groups.google.com. Put in the keywords describing your problem and search. You may find lots of people who have had the exact same problem. If they haven't fixed it, you probably can't either. On the other hand, you may find people who have already conquered it and who can give you lots of tips. This is how I got my system running - I got lots of help and pointers to sites that had beta drivers to try.
Another good move would be to just wait it out. I needed to put a beta level of sound card drivers on my system to get surround sound to work. Just yesterday, Creative Labs released supported drivers that fixed the problem. Had I waited a few months, I would not have wasted all the intervening time trying to fix it myself.
Oh, and another thing. If it works DON'T FIX IT! Don't be tempted to install new drivers on your already perfectly running system - leave well enough alone!
I know a lot of this doesn't sound very encouraging, but that is the nature of the PC world these days.
(Bob Seidel is a local computer consultant in the Southport / Oak Island area. You can visit his website at www.bobseidel.com or e-mail him at bsc@bobseidel.com).