[RESOLVED] OEM Ext. 8X CD-ROM and NEC Versa 2000C

[DyCRXsi]

Repairing a friend's NEC Versa 2000C. Had new hard drive installed and the shop lost the drivers for the external 8X CD-ROM. Dissection of the unit showed that it was a Panasonic OEM, model CR-583-J sold under the name Creative. The box that it is mounted in has no name anywhere. I have contacted NEC, they have no suitable drivers available, Panasonic says to contact Creative and Creative said they do not make or sell external CD-ROMs such as the one that I have. Have tried to use SwissKnife downloaded from various sites and to no avail. Any ideas? Many thanks! ;-)

[schultzz]

I have seen some older external CD-ROM drives from Reveal that used a real, funky connector on the back and a special cable to connect to a special sound card.

What kind of connector do you have on the back of this unit?

[This message has been edited by schultzz (edited July 14, 1999).]

[DyCRXsi]

The back of the box has standard stereo audio output jacks (red and white) and a parallel port interface, which on the inside merely attaches via a ribbon cable to the CD-ROM. Hope this is of help. Appreciate your time, schultzz...

Dyana

[schultzz]

I just had a 2X come through the shop that was an external parallel unit...I didn't get a copy of the DOS drivers however. Since this was a proprietary drive (2X Panasonic CD-ROM drive), the drivers may, or may not, work with your unit. I know the guy, so I might be able to get a copy of the installation diskette, if you would like to try. Let me know if your interested...

[DyCRXsi]

I would be most appreciative if you could get a copy of the diskette. The CD-ROM is useless as it is now, so I see no reason not to give it a try!

Thanks again!
Dyana

[schultzz]

I think I got it! I got a copy of the diskette and found the vendor buried in one of the files on it...the vendor is KingByte (www.kingbyte.com.tw). Try the IDE to parallel drivers here:
http://www.kingbyte.com/b3.htm

Please, please, please, let me know if these work for you...

[DyCRXsi]

schultzz,

Went to the site and got the kbwin95.exe and it returned with an illegal operation error "invalid instruction at setup.exe".

Soooo, I went back and got the kingbyte.exe and it too did the same thing.

Although the kbwin95.exe said it was for WIN98, I wonder.....

Keep the ideas coming and I will keep trying them! This little thing is like a puzzle and I refuse to give in, stubborn as I am.

Thanks again.
Dyana

[schultzz]

Agreed...I tested the 95/98 drivers and ran into the same error. However, the DOS drivers seem to install OK. Try them first and see if they work. Make sure you follow the directions included with the installation files.


AND...I would e-mail KingByte at

support@kingbyte.com

and let them know that the Windows 95/98 drivers are corrupt...they may be able to send you a good version.

[DyCRXsi]

schultzz,
I downloaded and installed the DOS drivers and when I rebooted it told me that no host adapter or drives were found. The drive was on and connected via the parallel port. I have the port set to EPP. What is going on?

I did email the people at KingByte and told them about both the drivers...

Many thanks,
Dyana

[schultzz]

Try changing the parallel port to standard mode in the BIOS and use the default settings on the driver.

And...make sure you plug the cable into the right socket on the back of the CD-ROM drive - not the printer socket.

[DyCRXsi]

Tried the system at all three port settings, Enhanced, Uni and Bi-directional with the same results. There is no place where I can choose the default settings on the driver. The parallel port is good as I have been able to print off of it.

Going to try and locate another cable to see if that may be the culprit, will await any more thoughts you may have.

Dyana

[schultzz]

Just an idea...the answer may lie in the interface board that the CD-ROM attaches to. Whoever makes that board will likely also have the drivers. If you can remove it from the case, carefully examine it for anything that might ID the manufacturer, including an FCC ID number. Let me know if you find anything...

[DyCRXsi]

Took the whole thing apart and found nothing more than something that said FCC Class 1 and on the top of the board was an SI 0.09A Rev. 1.0

Also got an email in response to the one I sent about the bad drivers at KingByte and it said the drivers had been updated and I downloaded them again with the same response.

If you have any idea about who that manufacturer for that board may be, let me know and I am going to do some searching here and see what I can turn up.

:-)

[DyCRXsi]

Tried to search through Yahoo's directory of companies for computer components and found nothing for SI. Also tried the FCC site and got nowhere with that. Unless you can come up with an idea, I think it is a lost cause in finding any drivers. Appreciate all of your time and help with this, schultzz.