Typically all you need is to install the drive. No special drivers or
hardware should be required.

Make sure you set the jumpers on the drive properly (slave if slave or
master if master - If you use cable select you must use an 80 pin ribbon
cable and the last connector is master the middle is slave

Note: If this is a second drive on the cable and the primary (master) is a
harddrive, check with the hard drive manufacturer web site for jumper
settings. Some harddrives uses a different setting for a single drive and
master in a two drive configuration.

You need to hook up the audio cable from the DVD drive to your sound card or
the sound port on the mother board.

In order to play DVDs, you also need to install a DVD player software which
includes the needed codec's (powerdvd or windvd are typical examples)

--
Jon Hildrum
DTS MVP

www.hildrum.com
"jon" wrote in message
o.uk...

I have just installed a Samsung CD-RW/DVD drive that I picked up second
hand and I can't get it to play DVDs.

As I've never had a DVD drive on my PC before, I thought I'd better check
what I need, in terms of both hardware and software, and anything else
I'm missing in terms of setting it up.

1. First of all, do I need any additional hardware, eg some sort of PCI
card decoder that works with the DVD drive?

2. Secondly, in terms of a software DVD player, according to the
Microsoft webite there is a DVD player included with Win98, but I can't
see any way to install it from my Win 98 disc. The MS website seems to
suggest it will only work with certain DVD drives anyway?

In any case, I downloaded a freebie player (Cliprex DS DVD Player) but
still no luck - after launching the software and pressing play, I just
get an error message sayinmg there isn't a DVD in the drive (I tried
several DVDs with the same result).

What about Direct X? Should 8.1 be ok or do I have to upgrade?

So I could use some pointers here as to what I need to do to get my DVD
drive playing DVDs, thanks.


Jon

PS

The drive is installed as secondary master, is listed correctly under
Windows device manager and plays back CDs just fine.

[Windows 98SE with Direct X v8.1, Athlon 1.8G, 512Mb Ram, Terratec DMX6
fire soundcard, motherboard onboard video (Via)]