Basic Troubleshooting for the dc3000
If you've found yourself here, it could be because you can't get your dc3000 to work properly. One of the most common mistakes people make in troubleshooting problems is that they try to do too much at once, like trying to create a 2-hour DVD as their very first project. These steps are intended to help you to walk before you try to run.
First you should install all the software that comes on the Installation CD for the HP DVD Movie Writer.
You should be able to hook up your HP DVD Movie Writer and start using the drive to read CDs and DVDs immediately. If you can't see the HP DVD Movie Writer's drive show up in the device manager as a dvd300n, dvd300c, dvd420n, or dvd630c then you might have a hardware problem. This is especially true if the HP DVD Movie Writer ( the video capture device) appears in the device manager under 'Sound, Video and Game Controllers' but you can't see the drive in the CD/DVD ROM devices. It should look something like this. If you can see the capture device, but can't see the drive or if the drive is behaving erratically then the procedure to correct it be covered in a another more advanced section of the troubleshooting procedures.
Next, you should try to use the DVD+RW disk that came with the HP DVD Movie Writer to write a few files to it using RecordNow with the option to make a data disk. You can always erase the disk afterwards with the RecordNow application's erase function. Make sure to check the option to verify the disk after writing. That will let you know it was written properly.
If that works OK, then use PowerDVD to play a commercial DVD disk for about 20 minutes. Make sure it doesn't stutter or lock up.
If all that works OK, then you should try using the HP Transfer Wizard to capture and write a very short video, just a few minutes, again using the DVD+RW disk, which you can erase later.
The next step would be to write a large amount of data to the DVD+RW disk by trying to fill it up to capacity using RecordNow.
Then, if that works, try to use the HP Transfer Wizard to write a 1 or 2 hour DVD.
If all of these things work, then you should be able to use your HP DVD Movie Writer without any problems.