www.makemkv.com

Hi there - hopefully this is the right place... I have an external usb harddrive and MakeMKV crashes on first load with it plugged in. The drive is Slimtype DVD A DS8A4S USB Device

I'll try it again on my mac but experienced the same issue on windows. I managed to get the application working when I tried running it without the dvd player plugged in, got past the beta code and then restarted the app and plugged it in. The disc I have in there right now may be the problem too but I haven't checked that. Hopefully this helps someone else trying this out and having trouble getting the program to run or alternatively helps with a fix (although idk what is wrong - maybe the device is too eager to check in before the beta code is entered and breaking things?).

Here are the device details:
Device USBSTOR\CdRom&Ven_Slimtype&Prod_DVD_A_DS8A4S&Rev_JL61\303131323330333531383035&0 was configured.

Driver Name: cdrom.inf
Class Guid: {4d36e965-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}
Driver Date: 06/21/2006
Driver Version: 10.0.19041.4355
Driver Provider: Microsoft
Driver Section: cdrom_install
Driver Rank: 0xFF0006
Matching Device Id: GenCdRom
Outranked Drivers: cdrom.inf:GenCdRom:00FF2002
Device Updated: false
Parent Device: USB\VID_1132&PID_4511\303131323330333531383035

Here are the event viewer details:
Faulting application name: makemkvcon64.exe, version: 1.17.7.0, time stamp: 0x66436876
Faulting module name: makemkvcon64.exe, version: 1.17.7.0, time stamp: 0x66436876
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x000000000022bc07
Faulting process id: 0x2f24
Faulting application start time: 0x01db1054e1a1e8fd
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\MakeMKV\makemkvcon64.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Program Files (x86)\MakeMKV\makemkvcon64.exe
Report Id: 382fd0e7-6dbe-4906-8a34-52ef6f563f30
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

Are we talking about a hard disk or a DVD drive? You mention both.

If it is a DVD drive, does MakeMKV crash when it is plugged in EMPTY, or with a disk in it? Generally, you plug them in EMPTY, because you cannot tell what the operating system is going to ask/do before MakeMKV has control. If the operating system starts up its player application because of the disk, it can kill MakeMKV.

This happens for me too, Windows 10 Dell Precision T5600, onboard SATA DVD.

On another desktop, with a bdrom, when I install 17.7.7 and then try running it it simply tells me that the application version is too old and exits.

With your install, did you pull the key from the message MakeMKV is free while in beta and put it in, or did you ass-u-me that the key in the months-old archive was still current? Remembering to not have a disk in the drive when installing the new key.