Louise wrote:
>When I try to use a software program that I need to insert the CD for it =
>I get a message that my computer can't find the CD>>


More detailed info would help to get you some answers.

1. What program?  Just one, or several?

2. Presumably you can run other CD's OK.

3. Is this a sudden glitch, or has this disk never run on XP?

Possibly it's an obsolete program and the disk is not compiled for XP, or 
the disk is damaged.

You might try this:

Insert the disk, open My Computer, right click the CD drive, and select "open".

You should then be able to see the contents of the disk. Try to find the 
program's .exe file, and double-click that. The program might then run.

Other possibilities:
There may be a "setup .exe" file which means the program would need to be 
installed first on your computer before it will run off the CD.

I haven't seen any software for a long time which needs to be run off a CD, 
so my guess is that it's old software which may be incompatible with XP.

It's impossible to say from the little info you've given whether the 
problem lies with the computer not seeing the disk, or XP not recognising 
it. These are two quite different problem areas, and the first task is to 
determine whether it's a hardware problem (the computer does not see any 
disk) or a software incompatibility (XP does not recognise what's on the disk).

As far as your HP problem is concerned, first try reinstalling the printer 
software, or doing a system restore. Reinstalling printer software usually 
seems to be fraught with difficulties---you'd think HP and other printer 
manufacturers, with all their vast research labs, would have overcome all 
that a long time ago---but most of them still don't seem to get it right 
(by that I mean simple and foolproof).

Anyway try System Restore first, and if that doesn't fix it, try a simple 
reinstall of the printer over the top and see what happens. It can't do any 
harm. But, more than likely, you'll have to uninstall and then manually 
remove the printer software first, and then do a fresh 
reinstallation----can be rather difficult in some cases. I'm not familiar 
enough with HP printers to say, other than that when they're working, they 
work well, (I have a HP printer myself) but when they go wrong, they have a 
reputation of being difficult to fix.

Contact HP and see if they can help---if enough HP owners make big enough 
nuisances of themselves when things go wrong, perhaps their design people 
will wake up.  There may be a simple answer--perhaps no more than a setting 
somewhere.

Don Penlington



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