I recently bought a CD burner with two CD slots in it, a double cassette player, a receiver, and some speakers. Trouble is, I don't know how to hook all of this up so that I can get it to work correctly. I even had the guy who helped me pick the stuff out write down step by step what plug goes where, but it doesn't seem to be helping. I can put the plugs in where he tells me they should go, BUT, there are also connectors that came as part of the items that I bought, and I don't know where THEY are supposed to go.

The guy at the store told me it was "easy", but hell, it is anything BUT easy for me to figure out. I felt like saying, "For YOU it probably is easy, because you've done this probably a million times. For ME, it's difficult, because I'm not familiar with where all of the connectors and such are supposed to be plugged in." I know you're supposed to match up reds to reds and whites to whites, but there are so many darn wires and plugs that need to be connected, it confuses the hell out of me. I hesitate to call the place where I got them at to get everything hooked up, because they charge $150 to do that, and that is waaay too much money for me to be spending right now. I need help!

Um...you may need to be a bit more specific...

Which device are you having problems with...??

All of them.

psychodelicide said:

...Well, starting with the CD burner...do you have that one connected??

Don't think so. I have wires going every which way, don't think I have them connected properly.

psychodelicide said:

How many cables are there??...

Too freakin many.

psychodelicide said:

Ok, you're not makin' this any easier...

I know I'm not, but like I said in my original post, I know NOTHING about any of this stuff.

Okay, who wants to take a road trip to psychodelicide's place to hook up her equipment?

bummer dude. does it come with a diagram?

you should search the net. maybe there's a website with a question and answer section

MrJoker said:

me me ME ... i wanna help !

C'mon over, Mach (although I think you live kinda far from me, but I appreciate the offer to help).

I did call the place where I bought all this stuff, told the person I spoke to on the phone what I had as far as equipment and cable connectors I bought. I asked if I needed to use the connectors that came in the box with the electronics that I bought. The guy told me no, that the cables that were recommended to me were BETTER than the ones that came with the electronics, and that I didn't need to install them. Whew, that was one less worry on my mind, since the person who sold me the electronics did not tell me that.

I also asked about connecting my speakers to my receiver, since I had speaker cable, but was having trouble getting the cable into the connections both on the speakers and on the receiver. The guy told me that in order to get the cable to go into the connections properly, I needed to strip the plastic coating that was on the cable (another thing the guy who sold me the electronics at the store neglected to tell me).

So hopefully now I will be able to get everything connected and in proper working order. The person I spoke to on the phone basically said that my CD burner and cassette player cables needed to be connected to the "out" connection, and everything that I was connecting to my receiver needed to be connected to the "in" connection.

Let's hope I can get the connections straightened out so that I can get down to business. I hooked up everything except my speakers. I was in the process of stripping the wires to connect the speakers, but then got a phone call from a friend who is coming over, who needs my help (she is having computer issues). So if I don't get it done tonight, I definitely will keep at it tomorrow, even if it means again calling the store where I bought everything in order to get it straightened out. I never knew that electronics could be this confusing!

First, tell that guy in the store "If it's so easy, why do you charge $150 for hooking it up?"

Is there a way you can type here all of the titles of the connections you have on your receiver and other equipment?
If so, I think I can help you out.

LOL - you know, that's a good question, I seriously should have asked him that.

My girlfriend just left, so I'm going to go back now and see if I can't get this to work. Wish me luck.

When I bought a digital TV decoder, it took me three hours to wire it up so that my DVD player and VCR still worked.

I don't know what I did exactly, but I can now record DVDs to tape without any copy-protection interference.

I hate wires.

I believe it, electronics can be totally mindboggling, especially if you're not familiar with it.

As a follow-up, I AGAIN called the place where I bought my electronics, and spoke to a different gentlemen. He tried to help me over the phone, but said that instead of doing it that way, he would come over to my house, since he did not want me "to fry out" what I bought. I asked him how much it would cost me, and he said "$20.00". The price was right, so I gave him my phone number and my address, explained to him where exactly I lived. He told me that he would be over at my house after work (between 5:30 and 6:00). I planned on giving him a little more than the $20.00, since he was going out of his way to help me. He told me not to tell his boss what he was doing, since normally it would cost $150 to get my electronics hooked up, and he was kind of doing it "under the table".

So I waited, and he never shows up. Then the phone rings around 7:00 tonight, and it's him on the line. I nicely asked him, "Where are you, I'm waiting for you to show up." That was when he told me that his car broke down and wouldn't start. I guess he had to get a ride home, and probably would not get the car back until Friday. But he did walk me through and told me, step by step, how to hook everything up, and it's working!!! I am SOOOOO unbelievably happy right now! All's I need to do is read my instruction manuals, so I can figure out what I'm doing.

I'm so glad this story had a happy ending, because when I waited for the guy and he didn't show, I started to get suspicious. I thought maybe he forgot that he was supposed to come over, or maybe he was just blowing me off. I'm so glad that wasn't the case, and even better yet, I wound up paying NOTHING to get my connections hooked up. You can't beat that.

psychodelicide said:

Nancy! That one line alone made my day.

Thanks, Raij. Now I need to figure out how to get everything to coincide with each other. LOL - I just tried to copy a cassette onto a CD, but it didn't work. Just need to read my instruction manuals a little more to find out what I did wrong.

Okay, I have everything hooked up, but I cannot get the cassette and CD burner to work correctly. Are there any electronic wizards out there who can help me?

Wish I could help you Nan-y. Unfortunately, I am also "EC".

One of my all time favorite movie scenes comes from "Beatlejuice". The newlywed dead couple are reading "The Handbook" and the guy says to the affect, "It reads like stereo instructions..."