When using Nero to burn a CD the burn stopped at 52%. I restarted Nero with a new blank CD and it only completed 34%. Reinstalling Nero did not fix the problem, and the system still refuses to complete the full burn. What is wrong? A second unrelated problem is the Windows desktop background wallpaper does not appear. I have tried changing the background wallpaper, but even this does not make the background wallpaper appear. The computer is running Windows XP.

There are numerous reasons why Nero may not be completing the CD burning process. The first reason could be Nero is experiencing a ‘buffer underrun’ during the burning process. When you copy data to a CD the data is generally placed into a buffer, which the CD burning software reads from and copies that data onto the CD. A buffer underrun occurs when data is being read from the buffer faster than the computer is filling the buffer. Therefore, the CD burning software needs to stop and wait for the buffer to be refilled before continuing. This is a problem since CD burning is not particularly suited to stop-and-start operations. To minimise the chance of this happening, try reducing the speed of the burning process in Nero. For example, if you are currently burning CDs at 48x speed, try reducing the speed to 24x speed. If all is well, you can then try increasing the speed until the problem re-occurs at which point you will know the maximum speed at which you can burn CDs before problems start occurring.
The second possible cause of this problem are other programs running on the computer. This could cause a buffer underrun by potentially causing the computer to be pre-occupied doing other things during the burning process and not filling the CD burning buffer. On the other hand, these programs could be conflicting with Nero. Therefore, you should try closing all non-essential programs running in the background before attempting to burn a CD. First, close all visible programs which are running in the background. Then, look through the system tray (next to the clock) for any non-essential processes which may be running which you can shut down. If you are unsure about the purpose of any program or process it is best to err on the side of caution and not close that particular process. Also, do not close any security software (e.g. firewalls or antivirus software) otherwise you may leave yourself vulnerable to attack.

Should the problem continue, there is a possibility there is something wrong with the CD drive itself. We can test whether this is the case by using other CD burning software. If the problem continues when using other software, the problem would be most likely related to the CD drive. Windows XP has in-built CD burning software, which can be used as the first test to determine whether the drive is faulty. First, ensure Windows XP CD burning is enabled on the drive. Open ‘My Computer’ and right-click on the CD drive and select ‘Properties’. In the window that appears, click the ‘Recording’ tab. Make sure ‘Enable CD recording on this drive’ is ticked, and then click OK. Next, insert a blank CD into the CD drive and in My Computer double-click the CD drive. The CD should open and should be completely empty (since there is no data on the CD at the moment). Drag across some files into the CD, and in the left-hand column click ‘Write these files to CD’. Follow the prompts to write the data to the CD. Should Windows XP write the CD successfully, it seems the CD drive is working correctly and the problem is confined to Nero. In this case, your best option may be to use the in-built Windows XP CD writing facility to write CDs.

However, should the Windows XP in-built CD writing facility also fail to write the CDs, it seems the problem is related to your CD drive. As a final test, it may be worthwhile trying some other CD burning software. If those also prove to not work, you may need to purchase a new CD writer for your computer.
Moving onto your second question about the desktop wallpaper not appearing, this is definitely a strange issue. We should first rule-out the possibility the desktop wallpaper files are not in the correct location. This could cause the behaviour where you select a desktop wallpaper from the Display control panel, but Windows cannot find the source wallpaper graphic file and thus cannot display the wallpaper. So, we can try setting a graphics file as wallpaper to see whether that makes a difference. First, you will need to find a graphics file suitable as a wallpaper. If you have difficulty, have a look at http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper which has some lovely wallpapers. Download a wallpaper graphic suitable for your resolution (e.g. 1024 x 768). Double-click to open the wallpaper in the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer. Should the graphic open in some other program (e.g. Paint Shop Pro, Adobe Photoshop) close the program, and then right-click on the file and select ‘Open With’ > ‘Windows Picture and Fax Viewer’. Once the graphic has opened, right-click on the picture itself and select ‘Set as Desktop Background’. See whether this graphic is now set as the desktop wallpaper. If so, this is probably the method you will need to use to set the wallpaper. You could also go into the Display control panel > ‘Desktop’ tab and click the ‘Browse’ button to manually select the picture you would like to use as your desktop wallpaper.

However, should the wallpaper options in the Display control panel be greyed out, this may be an indication that your computer is infected with adware or spyware. Such pests try to prevent the user from modifying the wallpaper, which usually is set as an advertisement. So, you should first download and run Ad-Aware SE Personal (http://www.lavasoft.de), Spybot Search & Destroy (http://www.safer-networking.org), and Windows Defender (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads). These three free programs should be able to scan and detect most adware and spyware located on your computer.

However, should the wallpaper still not appear it seems something awry in Windows is preventing the wallpaper from being displayed. You should first try running the Windows XP System File Checker. This will scan for any missing or corrupt Windows system files, and replace those files with known good copies. Go to the ‘Start’ menu > ‘Run’ and type ’sfc /scannow’ (without the quotes) and click OK. You may be prompted for the Windows XP CD during this process, so you might want to have this CD handy.