Computer can't tell ROM from RW

[JamesSpelt]

The burner I just bought (CyberDrv CD-ReWriter 52*24*52, Internal IDE) is installed on my old computer (after jamming the new computer one two many times) but it is only recognized as a CDROM. Programs such as Nero and PTS don't recognize it either. It is listed in the device manager as a CDROM.

The computer runs

WIN 95
100mhz
16MB RAM

[DocPC]

If this is a 486/100 it's not going to work. And with 16MB RAM you are going to get buffer underuns no matter what.

[JamesSpelt]

No, it's not a 486, it is a Pentium. Is there any other thing that could help solve the problem?

Or instead, would anyone have an idea about why it jams the computer. It is recognized as a drive and appears in the My Computer window, but when it tries to read a CD the computer freezes.

The computer:

Win98
300mhz AMD
32MB RAM

[confus-ed]

...Or instead, would anyone have an idea about why it jams the computer. It is recognized as a drive and appears in the My Computer window, but when it tries to read a CD the computer freezes....

Doc seems to have a point, which runs to this machine too ...You don't to have much memory in either of the systems mentioned & I'm wondering whether anything'll actually work 'correctly' with that little memory, you'd have to be a bit more specific version wise for me to say certainly, but everylikehood I'd say...

Before we chase this any further we want to test the unit, if either pc can boot from cd that's a very good test, however I'm none too sure either will ! ... so you might try installing the dos drivers (which you want for 95 but not for 98) & trying something simple from the dos prompt like 'dir' the drive letter .

Edit:

... & if this is a first post ... welcome! & if not well .. welcome back!

[JamesSpelt]

Well I'm not quite sure what booting from a CD actually means but bot machines will recognize a diagnostics CD at startup. And how do I install Dos drivers.

I also got the feeling that you thought the drive wasn't working much at all. In the Win95 it can read CD's, it is just the machine that doesn't recognize it as a burner.

I'm thinking that perhaps i need to install something that makes the computer know what the burner is. All that I did was plug it in, but no 'add new hardware' options were available.

Thanks

[Platypus]

It's quite normal for Windows to show a burner as a CD-ROM, as far as reading goes, that's what it is. The burning software interfaces with the drive for writing disks, so there's nothing extra needed to enable the system itself to recognise the drive as a burner.

When you say programs such as Nero, are you using the writing software that came with the drive? (Software supplied with drives may be licenced and keyed to the specific drive it is supplied with, so will only work with that drive.)

Do you have more than one burning application installed? This can cause difficulties with conflicts and incompatabilities.

[confus-ed]

Right ... wavelengths connected now I think !

So the cd works just fine & dandy as a reader, both systems ? I'm still a touch confus-ed on that, perhaps each machine does a different thing ..?

The burning software that came with the unit (so nero or whatever pts might be) is what adds the 'burner bit' ... windows 98 should be able to use a burner as a plain simple cd just fine without anything (95 needs dos drivers) if it doesn't work completely like this then you probably have some other (connection based) issue lurking.

Which one do we want to attempt to fix? Pressumably the 98 install ?

I still think whether the units working ok or not that we haven't got enough system memory to run certainly nero that wants at least 64meg free !

Can you confirm the nero version & tell me what pts is

[JamesSpelt]

Right ... wavelengths connected now I think !

So the cd works just fine & dandy as a reader, both systems ? I'm still a touch confus-ed on that, perhaps each machine does a different thing ..?

The burning software that came with the unit (so nero or whatever pts might be) is what adds the 'burner bit' ... windows 98 should be able to use a burner as a plain simple cd just fine without anything (95 needs dos drivers) if it doesn't work completely like this then you probably have some other (connection based) issue lurking.

Which one do we want to attempt to fix? Pressumably the 98 install ?

I still think whether the units working ok or not that we haven't got enough system memory to run certainly nero that wants at least 64meg free !

Can you confirm the nero version & tell me what pts is

Questions...questions!

Firstly, the CD burner works as a reader on the 95, but freezes the 98 every time.

Nero 5.5 came with the burner. NEro works on the 95, but doesn't recognize a burner (except virtual image). Neri doesn't work on the 98 because some stupid computer designer ensured that only one CD drive can fit inside the box, and the burner wont read CDs.

I would prefer to fix the 98, but it seems to reject any modifications that I try to make, so the 95 is a secondary option.

16meg seems adequate to run Nero.

PTS is an audio CD Mp3 'studio' that i installed to see if it recognized any burners. It didn't.

And when Nero scans SCSI ID it does not recognize any physical devices

Thanks

[confus-ed]

Bit of googling later ...

486/33 or faster processor

Microsoft Windows 95, 98, NT 4.0, 2000, or Me

8 MB RAM

MB hard disk space

CD-ROM drive

WinASPI driver layer

Nero 6 wants 64meg apparently ... confus-ed again !

Anyway get yourself a new aspi layer here ... lets see if that helps.

Err another question, which one are we trying this on 95 or 98 ... since we now know it ought to work on either ?

[NooNoo]

We may also need chipset drivers here. If the burner in the 98 setup does not read, then it's possible there is a problem with the ide drivers which drive the cd drive as well as your hard drives. Do NOT assume that just because your hard drive works, the the burner will be fine.

We need your motherboard make and model and let us know if you have any ! in the device manager.

You can also download Nero if the 98 machine is online. Lastly, exactly which version of nero do you have? (click help, about) - your model is not supported until version 5.5.9.9 properly and the wrong version of Nero has been bundled before on the basis that Nero is good at supplying updates. Version 5.5.10.54 This is a full version (13mb) that can be downloaded to your 98 machine.

[JamesSpelt]

Well I'm not going to have to try any of these suggestions because I had a quick chat to the guy in WinDriver IRC and they suggested that the CDRW was faulty. I swapped the CyberDrive for a Benq everything is working perfectly.

So I still don't know whether the brand is uncompatible or if that actual burner was faulty. Well all's well that ends well.

Thanks for all your help.

[NooNoo]

Glad you are sorted

[confus-ed]

Well I'm not going to have to try any of these suggestions because I had a quick chat to the guy in WinDriver IRC and they suggested that the CDRW was faulty. I swapped the CyberDrive for a Benq everything is working perfectly.

So I still don't know whether the brand is uncompatible or if that actual burner was faulty. Well all's well that ends well.

Thanks for all your help.

Well its fixed, which is the main thing, so that's

& whether it was a faulty unit or merely incompatible we'll never know ...my moneys on 'incompatible' rather than faulty, but it makes no-nevermind