CD-Rs harder to read than standard discs

Q: I received a CD from someone and I couldn't read it. Windows Explorer and RecordNow both reported it as a blank CD-R with 703MB available for recording. A replacement CD didn't work, either.

I found a computer that would read the replacement disc, but not the first one.

I tried both discs on an old computer and it could read both.

Visual examination suggests they are not recorded strongly (shade change very faint), thus a drive with weak reading ability may not read them. Any ideas?

— Keith Sketchley,

Saanich B.C.

A: Since you refer to the "shading" on the disc it seems you know about the difference between commercially produced CDs and "burned" CDs.

Just in case — and for the benefit of readers who may not know — I'll go over the difference anyway: Commercially produced CDs are produced like old-fashioned vinyl records, with a machine cutting pits and grooves in the plastic that are later "read" by a laser scanning over the surface.

Burned CDs created on a PC employ a different process. With burned CDs, lasers create a pattern in a layer of dye on the disc. The pattern in the dye is later read by a laser.

Commercially produced CDs can be read by virtually any CD player, unless they are too scratched or the CD drive is too dirty. With burned CDs, unfortunately, the results are much less certain.

The dyes used in a given brand of recordable CDs work better with certain drives than others. So the CD you burn on your computer may or may not be readable on someone else's computer or on a car CD player.

The first thing to do is to make sure that the CD drive in your computer is clean. You can try blowing a little compressed air into the drive to clear out any dust.

If that doesn't work, you might try a cleaning disc, available at your local electronics or music store.

If the drive is clean and you're still encountering the problem, it may just be that your drive doesn't work so well with the dyes used in certain brands of discs.

Finally, it is possible the laser in your CD drive — or in the drive that burned the CD — might be slightly out of alignment. In that case, results won't improve until the unaligned drive is replaced.

Q: Last year, I received many e-mails that I read and deleted. However, about 15 that came to me in June and July popped up later on and they won't delete.

I asked MSN customer support for directions on how to clear them and received a lengthy, complex reply that I do not understand and, as a result, have been unable to eliminate the pesky things. Lots of other e-mails have come and gone without problems. Can you help me?

— Sam Dunlap, Olympia

A: You don't say what version of Windows you're using, but I'm guessing Vista. That's because Vista did have a glitch that results in just this problem. Fortunately, you can download a patch that should fix things right up. For more information, go to support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/941090.

If that's not the problem, the next most likely cause is a corrupt mail storage file. The steps required to replace this file depend upon the mail client you're using.

Finally, some users have experienced this problem as the result of conflict between some e-mail clients and certain anti-virus programs.

Q: I am having icons appear on my desktop with names very similar to "hs_err_pid208." There are currently about 35 of them. Where do they come from? I recently upgraded to Internet Explorer 8. Could this be the problem?

— Brigitte Cole

A: Those files are error logs typically related to Java applications. And, yes, Java applications are typically run within your browser. But that doesn't necessarily mean Internet Explorer 8 is the source of the problem. To get any further in your troubleshooting, you'd have to have somebody knowledgeable take a look inside the log files.

Note: A reader in a recent column (Q&A, Aug. 15) asked about a solution to allow her to launch Hotmail with the browser maximized to fill the screen. Another reader, Ken Hales, wrote to suggest an alternative solution: a program called AutoSizer. It's a freebie, so there's nothing to lose in giving it a try. You can find it at www.southbaypc.com/AutoSizer.

Questions for Patrick Marshall may be sent by e-mail to pmarshall@seattletimes.com or pgmarshall@pgmarshall.net, or by mail at Q&A/Technology, The Seattle Times, P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111. More columns at www.seattletimes.com/