I use an external hard drive with my computer and I'm getting a "general error" message or the computer crashes when I try to burn a DVD with RealPlayer. What do I need to do to burn a DVD?

Switching drives and unplugging external optical drives may cause a problem when you try to burn a DVD to an internal drive after unplugging the external drive. Before unplugging the external drive, please be sure to reset the drive in RealPlayer (RealTimes) Advanced Burning Options and wait for the change to take effect before saving the results. Otherwise, you may experience General Errors, requests for database repair, or crashing.

Changing the drive manually when multiple drives are involved will avoid most, if not all, of these issues.

To ensure that RealPlayer recognizes the drive you want to use:

1. Only have a disc in the drive you want to use for burning.

2. Make sure the DVD disc is loaded before selecting the drive (and that autoplay has been closed if autoplay is active).

3. After unplugging an external drive, be sure to select the drive to replace the unplugged drive in Advanced Burning Options in the "Video Burning Options" window and wait for the new drive selection to populate the "Write Speed" associated with that drive before clicking Save.

4. Try playing a DVD in the drive to get RealPlayer to recognize the drive.

5. If RealPlayer still does not recognize the drive, close and restart RealPlayer.

6. If the problem persists, reboot the computer.

7. If you are still having issues, make sure the computer is reading the drive correctly. The best way to do this is through the Device Manager:

a. Right-click My Computer.
b. Click Properties.
c. Click the Device Manager tab.
d. Click the + symbol next to DVD/CD-ROM drives.
e. You should be able to view your burner from here. Verify that it is installed correctly. Errors can be identified by a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark.

You can also click on the burner to view its properties. From the Driver tab, you will be able to view the driver version. You can use this to verify if your burner is updated with the latest driver. You may also want to try updating the firmware for the burner.

8. If none of the steps above have solved the issue, uninstall and reinstall RealPlayer.