DVD writer & software issues

mjl_3

I'm having a few problems with my pc at the moment and I wonder if anyone could give me some advice.
I have been using Nero 7 Ultra edition's Nero Vision to burn dvd's and cd's, all was fine until about 2 weeks ago.
My dvd re writer is a Lite-on DVDRW SHW-160PS, btw.

Well my teenage son bought an mp4 player, it came supplied with a mini cd with some AMV converting software.
to begin with the mp4 player accepted mp3 music tracks, fine. When it came to adding music video it was a real pain.
I added one of the converter programmes to the pc, which decoded 2 music vid's and put them on the player. Then it wouldn't convert anymore,
they were all the same file type MPEG I think. Any way, I installed another version of the AMV converters, after deleting the first programme.
This worked ok. I also googled amv converters but basically the results were the same software as the mini cd contained.
I don't know if this has any relation to my problems but it was after this time that things went belly up.

Just after this, the pc started flashing a message up thru the Zone Alarm firewall that a programme was trying to access the 'net.
This was something my son had allowed in. I cannot remember the name of the programme but a google search confirmed it as spyware.
I scanned the pc using:
Ad-Aware SE personal
Spybot Search and Destroy
Scan Spyware
and also used CCleaner
The tools all reported problems and I repaired them

This is where the trouble started. Nero Vision wouldn't transcode anymore AVI files. It just flashed up a message "unable to open"
I downloaded DIVx Codec after looking on Tech forums as I thought somehow Nero had lost some codec's.
I thought this problem had been caused by messing with the MP4 AMV converters.
The OEM software supplied with the PC for burning discs was called "Sonic", this started to open when I put a blank disc in the DVD RW drive so I uninstalled it.
Nero Vision was able to transcode the AVI files now, but when it started to write them to the blank DVD, a message flashed up "dvd full"

The DVD's were Maxell DVD-RW. Before messing with the mp4 player and uninstalling "Sonic",
Nero vision would copy the transcoded AVI to these discs just fine.

Another strange thing, when i tried to look at the blank dvd from, Start> My Computer> drive (dvd rewriter) the D drive did not show the disc as
in the drive. There was no volume info, nothing. It will play commercial DVD's and Cd's but it will not "see" the DVD-RW.
I have used the option to update the driver in Windows but the current driver is the up to date one.
There are no hardware problems showing in the properties option.

I uninstalled Nero, using the General cleaner tool and re-installed it. Transcoded again, same message "dvd full"

I downloaded "ConvertxtoDVD" program, transcoded and burned to blank DVD just fine !

Also I have a photo editing prog " Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo XI" which will not open anymore,
I think this is because Nero has its own photo editor. I used Nero cleaning tool to modify opening images, but Corel
still will not open.

Have I messed up my DVD rewriter by uninstalling the OEM software?

How can I reinstall Nero? The cleaner tool whent thru the process of uninstalling the 1st time but the Program files for Nero
were still on C drive. I manually deleted them except for one file which I could not bin.

If I uninstall/reinstall it again, will there be trace files left which remember the previous settings?

Shall I just uninstall it again and bin it?

If I use Windows system restore will the spyware be back?

Browntoa

I would restore back two weeks and then scan for spyware again