Windows 2000 Pro: CD burning hell

[brblueser 0]

Hi all,

I've seen posts related to similar questions, but none seemed to give me a final solution to my probl, so here I am seeking for help from the gurus...

 

I have Windows 2000 Pro on a Athlon XP, with a TDK VeloCD CD-RW (old model, 8x write). I have installed Nero 5.5.9.17 and latest ASPI drivers from Adaptec, because CDex simply did not detect veloCD prior to installing it. I have installed the ASPI fix for Win2000.

 

Both apps (Nero and CDex) seem to be working fine at first, they all detect my TDK burner beautifully. Nero Info Tool even reports the right info, and so does aspi_you.

 

However, if I try to copy a CD, my computer reboots soon after CD reading starts (when about 50% of the reading buffer is full). This, as you can imagine, is pissing me off ;(

 

So, can anyone help this poor soul? Having two different ASPI drivers (Nero's and Adaptec's) seems like asking for trouble, but how can I manage to have both Nero and CDex working the other way?

 

TIA

 

Andre

[duhmez 0]

1) Right click My computer>properties>advanced>startup and recovery.

2) Uncheck "Automatically reboot"

3) Then when it happens again read what the screen says when it crashes (It wont reboot automatically anymore) and report back.

[brblueser 0]

Ok, just did that, thks for the tip. I really hope Win2k will allow me to do something before rebooting -- all reboots have happened so fast I would consider hardware fault a possibility, but the fact is that I am able to record cds with Linux on this very same machine (it's a dual-boot one).

 

Again, thks for replying. I will do some tests ASAP (within a couple of hours, hopefully), and will report back any news.

 

Best,

 

Andre

[jimf43 0]

I'm running 2 boxes with w2k and I've not had a problem with any of my burners that I could't resolve, but...

 

You say that Nero didn't recognize your burner before you put in the aspi fix. I would be somewhat suspicious that Nero would much rather use its own drivers, but doesn't have direct support for the TDK VeloCD CD-RW. And, as you say, your asking for trouble with the two drivers.

 

With an 8X burner, the latest version of Nero could be more of a problem than a fix. If you can get ahold of a late 4.x copy of Roxio (Adaptec), and it recoginizes your burner, that might be a reliable solution, since it uses the Adaptec driver. In my experience, the 4.x Roxio software was quite reliable under w2k, and not nearly as bad an interface as the later stuff.

 

The other suggestion is that it is time to retire that 8x burner, and get something that Nero will recognize. The're real cheap right now and 'a lot' faster ;-)

[brblueser 0]

Hi,

Quote:

You say that Nero didn't recognize your burner before you put in the aspi fix. I would be somewhat suspicious that Nero would much rather use its own drivers, but doesn't have direct support for the TDK VeloCD CD-RW. And, as you say, your asking for trouble with the two drivers.

Right, I intend to uninstall Adaptec drivers and do some further testing with Nero and its own drivers alone. The probl is: Adaptec doesn't provide instructions on how to uninstall ASPI drivers. aspicheck tool lists 4 DLLs, are these the only ones I need to delete? Any reg entries I need to modify/delete? Anyone out there ever did that?

 

I have an old copy of Easy CD Creator that came with my VeloCD, I will see if I can update it to work with Win2k. Anyway, I might replace the unit, but only as a last resource -- as I said, it works with Linux, I can't see why it shouldn't work with Win2k Pro.

 

Thks for the reply.

 

Andre

[jimf43 0]

Linux uses its own drivers, so, there is no relevence here, and, If Nero could use its own drivers then it would. So, I just don't see Nero as a working solution. You'll be wasting you time with that.

 

Your old copy of Easy CD Creator should be upgradeable on the Roxio website, so that may indeed be a solution, and, obviously that has direct support for your burner.

 

http://www.roxio.com/en/support/roxio_support/software_updates.jhtml

 

Good luck.

[brblueser 0]

Nero comes with its own WINASPI32.DLL, so, from a certain point of view, it also uses its own drivers (Nero Info Tool lists both its own and Adaptec's). Of course, generally comparing Linux to Win2k is nonsense, I just meant to say that the hardware is not faulty, and that being both top of the line OSs, it should be reasonable to expect it work on both (specially with Microsoft's legendary support to all kinds of hardware)

 

Funny thing is that I just confirmed that my old VeloCD is listed on Nero's supported writers page on

this page...

 

Anyway, upgrading my old copy of Easy CD Creator seems to be the best solution, indeed. I will see if I can find my cd among my old stuff

 

Thks again.

[thatsteveguy 0]

Could be related but probably not ,but did you check to make sure that DMA mode is working on the drive and it didn't default to PIO mode?

S

[brblueser 0]

Just checked: DMA is on for the drive (at least, so says Nero Info Tool). I hadn't payed attention to this detail, thks for drawing attention to it anyway.

 

UPDATES: I just tried installing my old Easy CD Creator, and installation aborts with a 'general file transfer error' (wow...). This happens right after trying to update the registry. This version is so old it is NT4.0 only, maybe that's the reason why it is aborting. I guess this is a no-go.

 

I re-installed Nero, hoping that this time it would recognize Adaptec's ASPI drivers and would not try to use its own. No good: Info Tool still shows both ASPI drivers (BTW: it says that "ASPI is installed and working properly").

 

aspi_you.exe outputs this:

 

Code:

Num Adapters = 2Ho/ID/Lu Manufac  Model            Rev  Type      ---------------------------------------------------------0,0,0    ST340823 A                3.39 Disk       0,1,0    FUJITSU  MPE3084AE        EE-C Disk       1,0,0    TDK      CDRW8432         1.07 CD-Rom     1,1,0    IOMEGA   ZIP 100          24.D Disk       

 

All data above seems to be right AFAICS.

 

Ideas?

 

TIA

 

PS: I am still trying to figure out how to uninstall Adaptec's ASPI drivers, if anyone could point me to some directions I would be really thankful.

[thatsteveguy 0]

this is all i found for uninstalling

 

Q6: How do I uninstall ASPI?

 

 

 

A6: Unfortunately, there is no graceful way to uninstall ASPI. Run the ASPICHK.EXE file and delete each of the named files from their directories. When you reboot, ASPI will be uninstalled.

 

by the way check for the dma through the control panel>system> device manager just in case to make sure it is activated but I am sure nero is right in saying it is but just in case.

S

[brblueser 0]

Hi everybody: it seems I finally was able to copy a CD using Nero . In order to do that, I did what we were all assuming was necessary: removed Adaptec's ASPI drivers and let Nero use its own.

 

Thks to thatsteveguy's info on how to uninstall Adaptec's drivers, I got rid of them, rebooted my machine and tried Nero Info Tool. It reported system ASPI drivers were missing, but its own drivers were ok. I then tried duplicating one of my audio CDs, and all went fine! I am still skeptical about Nero being 100% free of trouble, but I got a good feeling about it this time. A couple more burning tests will get rid of any remaining doubts.

 

So, thks to all who helped, your support was decisive and very much appreciated.

 

See ya,

 

Andre

 

FYI: My old Easy CD Creator copy was definitely a no-go: it was v3.5, which is the oldest version of ECDC, and for which there is no free upgrade to newer versions. Too bad... ;(

 

FYI2: Don't ask me how, but even CDex is recognizing my VeloCD this time... ;( Maybe the registry fixes I applied for Adaptec's drivers are helping, I don't know...