Setting up dvd

Spent the whole day trying to setup the new dvd writer. Got a
Samsung Super-Writemaster DVD writer. Before that went to buy a set of blank dvds. It was only then I know there is a difference between DVD+R and DVD-R. Though I still don't know the difference.

Anyway when I was trying to set up the dvd drive as secondary master, my computer would not start up. I made sure the jumper is set as master but to no avail. Tried changing the jumper here and there but it was futile. So at the end I just put two optical drives together. The CD-ROM is the master and the DVD-writer I put it as slave. It solves the problem of computer not starting up. Haven't try backing up my data files yet. Hope it is ok.

Then bought a Chinese writing pad which costs RM29. Compared to the 1 I bought a few years back which costs more than a hundred.
Still have problems writing. Cause when I open notepad to write, only garbage characters appears. For eg: 你好吗？is written as ÄãºÃÂ𣿠. I can type in the pinyin, the only problem is I can't write it... Anyone has any idea?

Btw, the brand is Usin.