How can I determine how much hot water my upstairs neighbors are using? [more inside]
posted by jimmyjimjim on Oct 30, 2009 - 31 answers

What's the best DVD burner? I need a new DVD burner, is there any reason I should buy one model over another, or should I just get whatever's on sale today? [more inside]
posted by davr on Sep 10, 2009 - 9 answers

My MacBook Pro no longer burns DVDs, and from what I can see it would cost more to fix it than to simply buy an external one. Anyone have any recommendations for a good burner?
posted by dearleader on May 27, 2009 - 14 answers

My gas grill is broken. Why would the gas flow decrease so that I can only get one burner to cook on high? [more inside]
posted by rocketman on Mar 17, 2009 - 8 answers

I have a legacy CDRW which shows up empty when mounted in either Linux or Windows. Extracting an iso image under linux via dd yields greppable strings which indicate files are hiding inside. How do I extract the files without knowing what format or filesystem they are in? [more inside]
posted by benzenedream on Oct 1, 2008 - 4 answers

(Oil Heat) - Getting a new oil burner / furnace. (1) How much should it cost, including installation, for a new oil furnace that's at least pretty good/efficient? (We've gotten one estimate, so far, for $10,000 (!) $11,000 for antifreeze pipe system.) What's the cost for the equipment vs cost of labor? (2) The $10K was for a System 2000. Is the System 2000 really that good? Anyone have one? How much did it cost? How much did it reduce your heating bills? [more inside]
posted by coffeefilter on Apr 2, 2008 - 6 answers

CD burner on my Powerbook G4 is erratic. [more inside]
posted by Wolof on Mar 19, 2008 - 8 answers

I want to get an external DVD burner for my new Windows laptop. Suggestions? [more inside]
posted by yoga on Dec 24, 2007 - 11 answers

SOMEBODY in my household made a sandwich and left the empty bread wrapper draped over an electric burner on my stove. Which is now melted onto the coil. What is the easiest way to clean this off???
posted by konolia on Dec 17, 2007 - 12 answers

How do I convert VHS to DVDs or digital files using my laptop? [more inside]
posted by dorisfromregopark on Dec 4, 2007 - 9 answers

How do I safely remove glass that has melted to my stove? [more inside]
posted by crazy finger on Dec 3, 2007 - 17 answers

I'm using Windows XP, and a 3 yr old external DVD+RW/-RW burner. Pacific Digital, NEC 2500a. I've been burning avis to DVD using Roxio 6 Drag to Disk. I have a great many dvds that aren't closed - partially burned, unformatted to work in any drive, they'll only work in the dvd burner with drag to disk. My dvd burner has suddenly stopped recognizing both THESE dvds, and also BLANK dvds, though it will read dvds I have burned before. The partially burned dvds and blank dvds give me a CD icon in My Computer, and will not open. It says something like "Incorrect function" when I try. This is also the error I used to get when I burned coasters. [more inside]
posted by anthropomorphic on Nov 22, 2007 - 2 answers

I'm trying to find a cheapish single burner stove for camping, and a local store is selling the Primus Classic Trail burner, BUT has run out of Primus gas cylinders. Is it possible to use it with another brand? The girl in the store said it wasn't recommended, but how bad will it be: is it the "doesn't work well" type of not recommended, or the "might explode" type of not recommended? [more inside]
posted by easternblot on Aug 2, 2007 - 16 answers

How to level a burner on a gas stove? [more inside]
posted by QIbHom on Jan 11, 2007 - 4 answers

What's a good (preferably free) CD burner that I can use to do weekly data backups? In the ones I've tried, a "project" is a list of files; I want one that goes by directories instead, so it'll automatically include new files. I'm on WinXP.
posted by futility closet on Sep 14, 2006 - 5 answers

What CD burners have the largest buffers? [more inside]
posted by iconjack on Sep 8, 2006 - 12 answers

Why will my burner not recognize my DVD-Rs as 16x? [more inside]
posted by weretable and the undead chairs on Jun 8, 2006 - 3 answers

DVD-RWFilter: I burned a DVD ages ago, and on attempt to re-read, wimdows thinks it's blank. [more inside]
posted by weaponsgradecarp on Nov 8, 2005 - 8 answers

I recently bought a Sony external DVD/CD dual-layer burner (DRX-710UL/T), but didn't get the CD that comes with it and Sony won't sell me one. The four-year old Vaio laptop I'm using it on sees the device, but I have no way of controlling it. I know that Windows XP Pro (the Vaio's OS) supposedly has all the drivers built in. Is there an application that would act as an interface between the burner and the laptop? Or does anyone know where I can get a copy of the disk?
posted by Toolshed on Oct 4, 2005 - 7 answers

I have two dvd burners in my computer. One is an old(er) LG that is capable of burning (with the right media) at 4x. Last week, I picked up a new one that is capable of burning at 8x. However, the burn times seem to be the same. [more inside]
posted by synecdoche on Aug 10, 2005 - 11 answers

GrrFilter: Are the CD-Rs I bought just really crummy? [more inside]
posted by hamster on Jun 23, 2005 - 16 answers

The CD burner in my 1GHz PIII era computer has been acting flakey lately, getting halfway thru a burn and then crapping out with an error, or just causing the burning software to hang, such that I have to kill it. [more inside]
posted by ackptui on Jun 5, 2005 - 6 answers

I want burn DVD's, but I want to do it on my Mac and PC. I had an external enclosure, so I could move the drive between PC and mac easily. The proble is it wouldn't let me use my Optorite DVD drive to write DVD's on my Mac, only to read them. Where can I find a list of the DVD writers that OS X supports natively? [more inside]
posted by gaby on May 9, 2005 - 6 answers

Are there any decent freeware/shareware DVD burning programs for win XP or should I bite the bullet and buy Nero?
posted by 445supermag on Nov 27, 2004 - 7 answers

Do any MeFites have ideas/experience/recommendations for a way to archive VHS tapes to DVD? So far my Google-fu has turned up software that requires having to add video cards to computers, plus a DVD burner, etc. My work would prefer a product that is a stand-alone thing that you can pop in a tape, then convert it to DVD and pop out a DVD. Is there such a thing?
posted by Lynsey on Aug 26, 2004 - 9 answers

The new DVD burner (an NEC ND-2510A), didn't come with any burning software. I know I can get the express version of Nero 6 for a couple bucks, but does anybody know of a good small DVD burning program (preferably freeware) for Windows XP that would be downloadable on dialup? Sourceforge and Tucows, my usual trusted sites, are turning up bupkiss.
posted by PinkStainlessTail on Jul 5, 2004 - 5 answers

I am thinking of buying an internal DVD burner for my PC. A DVD-RW unit costs about 70% of what a DVD+RW one does. I understand that the +R format is supposed to be "better", but less compatible than the -R one. Which should I get? [more inside]
posted by signal on Apr 12, 2004 - 14 answers