Why can't I get certain new CDs to play on my Dell Inspirion Laptop?

I'm using XP and some CDS play, but some don't (the ones that don't
seem to be the ones with video extras).

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Request for Question Clarification by duncan2-ga on 28 Oct 2002 22:45 PST

Hi freakfarm,

It's entirely possible that the CD's you're trying to play are CD's
which don't strictly follow the CD standard.  Why?  Because they have
some form of copy protection on them.  This can confuse some CD
drives.  To verify this (or to perhaps rule it out), can you give us
the name of one or more of the CD's which don't properly play?
http://www.eff.org/cafe/drmgame/copy-protected.html

Also, have any of the ones with video extras worked?  Or do all fail?

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Clarification of Question by freakfarm-ga on 28 Oct 2002 23:18 PST

actually, I've only tried a few with video and none of them work.

Examples of CDS that won't work.  The new Disturbed CD "prayer" and
the new Foo fighters CD "one by one".

DUDE! Your getting a dell! Too bad it doesnt work...

In respone to your question... Windows automatically should detect
audio CDs, even old ones.  Are the discs clean and scratch free, if
not I would recommend using a polisher.  What do you mean by the fact
that you can't get some CDs to 'play'.  Waht can you get them to do? 
Does it appear as a music CD in my comptuer.  After inserting the CD,
go to my computer and double click on the cd.  for the CD to play via
the windows CD Audio Player the files must be, if I recall correctly,
in *.wav format.  XP will not play *.mp3 cds, although it may play
*.wma cds (Windows mp3-similar compression technology).  If the cd
cannot be opened at all then it probably needs to be cleaned.  If you
do see the *.wav files inside the CD, then try double-clicking on one
and see what happens.  Try these ideas.

is it possable that your cd player is of an older generation? some
cd's dont play when they are recorded by other computers. i have 2 cd
players that will not play a recorded cd. if your playing bought cd's
and not playing the recorded ones then that is your problem however,
if this is not the case i would look at record speeds, some players
only will go a certain speed. is it possable that your cd player is a
cheap one that does not reconize cdr?

Have you tried windows xp updates?  windowsupdate.microsoft.com

Your CD-player program probably thinks they are data CDs, not audio,
due to the video extras.

Most players will allow you to Open or Play a location.  For WinAmp,
click on the control-bar's upper-left corner, pick Play, and tell it
you have an Audio CD in your CD-drive.

dottyk-ga you solved my problem!  Thanks for your time and knowledge!