Hi, I have an Acer CD-RW (16x10x40). When installing certain newer games under XP (eg Medal of Honor, Return to Castle Wolfenstein), the installation will get to a random percentage complete & then give various IO errors. These games installed fine with the same drive under Windows 98, so I installed Windows 98 again, & the games install fine. I then installed Windows XP & yes, they won't install. Acer tech support hasn't been of much help, so does anyone know of any problems with XP & Acer CD-RW drives, or any other cause of my problem & how I would go about fixing it (apart from getting rid of XP & just leaving Windows 98 on my PC)? Thanks.

I am no expert, but I find if an older game or program cannot be installed by way of the CD then use "Program Compatibility Wizard" to install it. If the game is installed, but will not start by way of the CD, then when inserting the CD hold down the left Shift key for approx. 15 sec. to keep AutoRun from taking over. Now click the game in the "All Programs" list. Should start. From a Microsoft web page: ----------- If an older application gives you trouble when running Windows XP, you can set the compatibility properties manually so that the program runs in a different mode, such as Windows 95, or in a different display or resolution setting. To set the compatibility properties for a program: 1. Right-click the executable or the program shortcut to the executable, and then click Properties. 2. Select the Run this program in compatibility mode check box. 3. From the list, select an operating system that the program runs in comfortably. 4. If necessary, also change the display settings and/or resolution, or disable the Windows XP visual themes. Run the program again when you?re finished changing the settings. Adjust the compatibility settings again if the program is still not running smoothly: a program that's unhappy on Windows 2000 may flourish on Windows 98.

I have a 56x Acer Cd-rom drive and had the exact same problem. This occured after upgrading to a newer NVIDIA Detonator video driver. I rolled back to the next previous video driver they had and the problem was gone. This problem occured when I tried installing Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Try a previous video card driver for your system. It worked for me. Let us know how you make out! Brian Fascia

I am also running WINXP too!!

I had the same problem with an Acer CD-RW - also using Nvidia graphics on a new PC ( Feb 2002) I assumed it was a h/w problem with the CD-RW and contacted my supplier to get replacement CD-RW. Looks like it works now, but maybe I could have solved it another way! Why do these things go wrong in so many different ways??!!

Ok, i'll give the video driver thing a try & post how I went. I do have a NVidia card, so it could be a good suspect.