Engineering: Gadget clinic

I bought some DVD-RWs, but my Windows Vista PC didn't work with them very well. My laptop manual recommends certain brands, but can a drive really be so sensitive?

Your problem could be something as simple as a dodgy batch of discs - hardly unknown - but it's likely that the DVD format is at the heart of the issue. The computer industry is stuffed with plenty of different formats and competing factions - and the DVD is among the worst of them: not much use for confused punters like us.

Rewritable DVDs come in two main flavours, DVD+RW and DVD-RW. Technically (stay with me), the difference is that the first writes information to several layers of the disc, while the second writes only one layer and so has a slightly smaller capacity. In the tribal technology industry some software makers pick favourites, and Microsoft explicitly supports DVD+RW, which is probably causing at least some of your problems. Try switching and seeing if it makes any difference.

However, assuming you're using the right format, your machine should be able to use any brand of DVD - anything else is just the sort of objectionable marketing spiel between partner companies that makes a confusing situation even more so.

· email your problems to gadget.clinic@guardian.co.uk

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