# WinXP, iTunes, and CD-ROM incompatibility

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winxp-itunes-and-cd-rom-incompatibility/238581>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 6, 2004, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winxp-itunes-and-cd-rom-incompatibility/238581 "2004-04-06T17:02:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jurph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/50afbb/32.png) [@Jurph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurph)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winxp-itunes-and-cd-rom-incompatibility/238581/1 "2004-04-06T17:02:18Z")

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My fiancée just got an iPod and installed iTunes on her PC; everything works wonderfully, except that iTunes doesn’t know how to rip audio from her CDs (or even how to play them) in her CD-ROM drive. iTunes can, however, read the CDs to contact CDDB, and gets the track titles and lengths correct. She has a Toshiba SD-R1002 (combo: DVD/CD/CD-R).

I suspect that its inability to _play_ the CDs is related to its inability to _rip_ them, but I can’t figure out what’s making iTunes so finicky. Windows Media Player has no problem reading or playing CDs.

In the meantime, an easy solution would be for us to use WinAmp 5 (or any other third party software) to rip CDs to MP3, but I was really hoping to try out the Apple Audio Format with her iPod before just giving up and using a third party ripper. Any ideas, oh wise dopers?

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**Author:** ![SandWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8491ac/32.png) [@SandWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SandWriter)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winxp-itunes-and-cd-rom-incompatibility/238581/2 "2004-04-07T04:58:12Z")

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I’ve seen this before, and even experienced something similar. The trick is to get rid of all CDROM, DVD, and audio drivers except those that iTunes installs, so uninstall windows media player, and any other ripping software or microphone input software, and re-install iTunes.

iTunes is pretty picky cause apple couldn’t test all the different configurations. They’re used to their ONE configuration. But let us not descend into the pits of Apple bashing. (okay, well at least not very deep)

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**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winxp-itunes-and-cd-rom-incompatibility/238581/3 "2004-04-07T07:03:38Z")

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Because, as we all know, no other Windows programs have _ever_ had driver/application compatability conflicts before. 😉

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**Author:** ![Jurph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/50afbb/32.png) [@Jurph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurph)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2004, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winxp-itunes-and-cd-rom-incompatibility/238581/4 "2004-04-07T13:32:31Z")

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Well, I managed to avoid having to uninstall everything and reinstall everything. WinAmp 5 can rip CDs straight to AAC format and use CDDB to make pristine ID3 tags, so I’m just using iTunes to move the files from the hard drive to the iPod. Thanks for the advice, all.