Toshiba XM-1702B - USB driver for WinXP?

**hpapazian** · June 12th, 2009, 02:54 PM

I have a Toshiba XM-1702B with a cable going to a 25-pin serial port. I can get an adapter to then go to USB. The question is, what software do I need for Windows XP to see and use the drive?

Note: this will end up being used on a HP 2140 mini-laptop. Any additional issues?

hhp

**NooNoo** · June 12th, 2009, 03:32 PM

Welcome to Windrivers hpapazian

The xm 1702b is an optical ide drive for a laptop... so what is this cable you have connected to it? Is the drive in some sort of caddy?

**hpapazian** · June 12th, 2009, 05:36 PM

Thank you for the quick reply.

This drive is internal (removable) to an ancient (1998) but working laptop (Win98), but this laptop also has an external floppy drive* that can either be plugged in instead of the CD-ROM drive or used externally with a special serial cable. This same cable fits on the CD-ROM drive when you pull it out of the chassis (no caddy - it just dangles) and I'm assuming (I'll try to check) that it still works that way.

* Actually I might like to plug the floppy drive into WinXP as well!

So to recap, I'd like to hook a 25-pin female serial to USB cable (~$5) at the end of the special serial cable, use the [powered] USB port on my HP 2140, and with the right driver(s) and some luck get it to work. The point? Save money not getting an HP external CD drive. I hear saving money is fashionable these days...

hhp

**hpapazian** · June 12th, 2009, 08:17 PM

CORRECTION:
The "special cable" ends in a parallel (DB25), not serial, connector. Anyway, there are DB25 to USB cables out there, so it's probably a moot point.

hhp

**NooNoo** · June 13th, 2009, 08:56 AM

Whether it would work is a whole can of worms... you can try it. I would look at seeing if the cable can be replaced entirely with laptop ide to usb cable... but it means pulling it to pieces....

**hpapazian** · June 13th, 2009, 10:26 AM

I thought of trying to simplify the connection, although I would not pull it apart - I just need to figure out what the drive's "native" output connector really is. It's probably not proprietary, although I don't recognize it. Is there a website that helps you visually identify a connection type?

**hpapazian** · June 14th, 2009, 12:38 PM

OK, so it turns out the CD-ROM's connector is "slim ATAPI", and there are adapters that take it to USB. Plus I'm having doubts about a DB25 being able to carry the necessary signals to make an ATAPI device work.

The question is, should I assume that with the right cable this will be a simple plug-and-play situation?

hhp

**hpapazian** · June 14th, 2009, 12:45 PM

Now, about that floppy drive... :-)

It also has a slim-ATAPI native connector (after all it does fit in the same place on that old laptop) but the DB25 (parallel port) cable I know works... So could *that* be a simple plug-and-play situation if I adapt the DB25 to USB?

hhp

**slgrieb** · June 14th, 2009, 08:34 PM

Matching the pins and trying to use a USB to Serial or Parallel adapter won't work becasue the Slim ATAPI is an IDE (or PATA) interface. You need a bridge board to convert the Slim ATAPI to USB (or SATA). You can buy them from Addonics and other companies for around $25.

**hpapazian** · June 14th, 2009, 08:59 PM

OK, great info. But I guess there's no point in doing that because you can get an external CD-ROM drive (USB) for about that price! However, an external DVD recorder is close to $100, and now I've started wondering if I can use my Dell laptop's removable DVD recorder on the HP 2140... Except I looked at its connector and I have no idea what it is - I have a bad feeling it's proprietary. How would I go about finding a bridge board for that? I can put up a close-up shot of the connector if that would help.

Less important: I'm curious, what about the floppy drive? That I know *does* work on that old laptop (Windows98) using a special parallel cable - so I assume it would just be a matter of copying drivers over. If so, where would I look and what would the filenames look like?

hhp

**slgrieb** · June 14th, 2009, 09:47 PM

The connector depends on the computer. If you posted the model for the Dell laptop, I bet one of us could tell you what connector it uses for the DVD burner. Anyway, most likely, you can find an adapter around $20 bucks or so. On the other hand you can get a new 20x external DVD burner from newegg.com from around $40. If you want to use the Dell, post the model information and we can go from there.

**hpapazian** · June 14th, 2009, 09:57 PM

It's C3284-A00
I looked around using Google, eBay, etc. but could only find the bare internal drive for sale.

BTW, the connector is a male "board-type" (as opposed to pin outs) with ~35 contact points on each face (and the top and bottom points are staggered, not vertically aligned).

Ideally it would be great to find an affordable enclosure you could slide the drive into and get a USB coming out. Still adequate would be a cable (or bridge board) that takes the drive's connector to USB (thus using the drive open-air).

(Fingers crossed...)

hhp

**NooNoo** · June 21st, 2009, 11:53 AM

this enclosure (or similar) should do the job. Might want to check before buying that it's the ide version and not the sata version - you need ide for the drive you have stated