Help! iTunes on Vista experts wanted!!!
- posted by Michael Walsh on January 22nd, 2008
- (14)
It looks like I’m about to go down with my fifth flu this winter (no, I am not kidding) but before I do, I need to ask if there’s someone out there who knows his or her way around iTunes under Vista.
Got a mail from Liz who’s having problems burning CDs which is one of the main reasons she bought her Extensa 4620Z in the first place.
In her mail, Liz writes:
When I go to burn a disc using iTunes I get a message that reads “attempt to burn a disc failed unknown error 2131″ & it ejects the disc automatically. After some research on Apple Support and reading user discussions it seems that many Dell users that have the same cd drive as I do have had the same problem. Some were able to get Dell to provide new cd drives for them and now Dell has made a patch that you can download to fix the problem and burn cd’s.I e-mailed Acer Technical support yesterday and am yet to hear a response.
I phoned Geek Squad at Best Buy where I purchased the Acer and they couldn’t help me. I then phoned Acer Technical Support and was told Vista and iTunes are not compatible and there was no patch coming from Acer and nothing that could be done so I can burn cd’s from iTunes. I asked if downloading the Dell patch would work and if it would void my warranty and I was told that if I did that and had a hardware malfunction it would void my warranty (I’m not even sure the Dell patch would work just grasping at straws here).It is very frustrating that burning cd’s from iTunes was one of my primary reasons to buy a computer and this computer doesn’t do what I want. Any help or suggestions you can give would be greatly appreciated!
Now I’m relatively familiar with iTunes but have never heard of this particular problem. Also Simone doesn’t have access to an Extensa model so he suggested trying to burn using NTI CD-DVD maker / MPlayer or any other burning software by changing the settings within iTunes so that it imports audio files in the MP3 format which you can then burn with NTI CD/DVD Maker but it’s a long-winded solution…
Liz is toying with the idea of downgrading to Windows XP and I’d really like to help her out before she does. Anyone out there with suggestions?
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Carvin wrote, on February 5th, 2008:
I just tried this at home with my new Acer m5620 Quad-Core desktop. I had no issues whatsoever?
I’m using itunes 7.6.0.29, and vista home premium.
Have you tried removing the user account security on vista? That feature is so frustrating, it doesn’t let you do a thing in Vista. Once I disabled that for all users, I’m starting to actually like vista.
Also I removed all “non-essential” software that came with the acer. Including all the acer software. It almost sounds like something is taking a hold of your cd-burner, before itunes can. that’s why it’s not able to burn to the cd.
david gunnells wrote, on April 30th, 2008:
I don’t know if Liz ever found the solution to this, but there is a known problem with TSST (Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology Corporation) TS-L632* optical drives, which requires a firmware update.
For Dell machines, you can get the firmware update at http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R173097&SystemID=LATITUDE%20D830&servicetag=&os=WLH&osl=en&deviceid=14182&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=1&catid=-1&impid=2&formatcnt=1&libid=31&fileid=235346
For Toshiba machines, you can get their firmware update at http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/su/su_sc_dtlViewDL.jsp?soid=2024958&moid=1998642&rpn=PSAEGU&BV_SessionID=@@@@1920566641.1208482430@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccgadedlgfhkdecgfkceghdgngdgmn.0&ct=DL&all_docs=false
I don’t know that Acer has released a firmware update, but if you can try cross-flashing by following the instructions at http://club.cdfreaks.com/f36/acer-aspire-tsst-ts-l632d-cross-flashed-firmware-sc04-228563/
…however, cross-flashing could theoretically damage your drive, so only attempt that as a last resort and if you’re aware of the possibility of damage occurring.
Stacibo wrote, on May 5th, 2008:
Hello,
I have the same computer as Liz (ACER Extensa 4620Z) but with Microsoft Windows XP. I’m getting the same error message and a lot of run around from Acer support.
Any ideas as to how to address this issue?
Thanks.
Staci
Danielle wrote, on May 18th, 2008:
I have an Acer Extensa 5620. I am getting the message also. 2131. When someone comes up with a solution, please notify me. I would greatly appreciate it.
danifashionxcore@gmail.com
Haley wrote, on May 25th, 2008:
I have a Acer Aspire 5920G. I am also getting this error, when I tried calling Acer they told me that Acer and Itunes are fine and that I should try calling Itunes. The nice guy at Apple told me that they didnt really have customer support for just itunes without an ipod, but tried to help me anyway. The people at Acer just seem to not care at all. They don’t want to help me with my problem at all. We are planning on taking the computer back mostly because it is only really being used for music and all other music programs suck. So, Acer, don’t expect us to ever buy another product from you, if you’re not even willing to try. But no, I don’t have any advice for whoever was asking, other than don’t downgrade to xp, Vista is so much better. Acer should be willing to fix the problem after YOU have spent so much money on the damn thing.
Carla wrote, on July 31st, 2008:
I have a 5920 on Vista too and I am getting the same message. I’m desperately trying to burn a disc for work tomorrow and its almost 2am!
Can’t use NTI as it can’t convert itunes files (such as ones you buy from itunes store) and they’re the ones i’m trying to transfer!
The only possible solution i can think of after reading what everyone else’s problem is, is to email the files to myself and download them on my family desktop PC’s iTunes and burn from there but it’s a lot of hassle.
Morris Lee wrote, on July 31st, 2008:
if you guys are in a hurry, why not just use windows media player? it converts files and burns them fine. Windows media player’s hardware compatibility should be alot better then itunes.
what i would also says is that something like winamp can do the job I would assume, compatible with ipods too if that was your requirement.
point is, iTunes is NOT the only solution to burn music CD’s, therefore, there is no need to stay up till 2 AM and not using a program that is already installed on your computer, that is Windows Media Player I am talking about.
Emma wrote, on August 11th, 2008:
i have the same problem with my extensa 5620 and im using xp so its not just vista?? its driving me nuts.
in response to morris lee- id love to use media player but i want a copy of the purchased itunes songs and can only do that through itunes.
anyone found any solutions yet????
Thisisnot good wrote, on November 10th, 2008:
ACER EXTENSA 5620
error 2131 in Itunes.
Anybody got any help besides phoning acer/crossflashing?
Thisisnot good wrote, on November 10th, 2008:
Good News- if you use a CD-RW (mine’s currently working…will mention if it doesn’t successfully burn) it will burn.
I know this doesn’t fully solve it but I hope it saves hours of peoples’ times
Krystal wrote, on April 4th, 2009:
Hi,
My Aunt was having the same problem…. very frustrating for her and i when i couldn’t solve it… i tried to burn with a CD-RW and it seems to be working fine now!!
Thanks!
Krystal
Tony Mac wrote, on April 15th, 2009:
I too have experienced the same problem on my Acer TravelMate 5720.
I called Dell Support who were quite honest (in my opinion) unsupportive.
They state that the issue is one which only affects apple and to contact apple support.
Whwn I pointed out that the hardware in their notebooks is one of a limited number of burners/drives which will not burn using the software, and that both dell and Toshiba have provided firmware update the guy starts quoting act and section of the warranty which does not cover foreign software just like a robot.
Has anyone discovered a fix yet, as I don’t think I tunes would be interested.
Anna wrote, on January 20th, 2010:
Hi – im using a 5920 aspire with windows vista and am also getting the 2131 error in itunes – i know its been a while since this thread was updated but just wondered if there was a solution to this problem yet?
many thanks anna xx
Morris Lee wrote, on January 21st, 2010:
@Anna,
I think it has something to do with the firmware, I just searched the code up in google, apparently updating the firmware of your DVD-Drive fixes for several people, but just make sure when you update the firmware, you need to check if it is the correct model, or you might render it unusable.
Morris Lee