Disgusted with new Plextor CD-RW

[fragusmaximus]

Maybe you folks can identify a problem for me. I got a Plextor 48x24x48x CD-RW for a gift recently. I installed into my Windows XP machine and installed the Roxio software that came with the drive. Thus far, I have made about a dozen costers. I have tried burning copies on the fly, copies of disk images, and even as far as burning files straight from my hard drive. Each time an unreadable coaster comes out. I've also tried other software like CloneCD which came recommended to me by a friend.

I thought I could try a different setup so instead of slaving it off the primary IDE, I thought I would place it alone as master of the secondary IDE and place my Lite-On DVD as slave off the primary. Still nothing. At this point I'm not sure if the drive is bad or not so I insalled the drive in my old Windows 95 system.

Under Windows 95, I have successfully burned a cd copy and contents from my hard drive. I think this is enough to prove to me that the drive is functional, just not under Windows XP.

Has anyone else had this problem? I tried updating the firmware from Plextor but the update failed during installation. I'm thinking about returning the drive.

 

[stevewm]

Have you checked to make sure DMA for the drive is enabled in Windows XP?

To check this: Get into Device Manager, expand the "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" tree, double click on the IDE channel your drive is located on, goto the Advanced tab, make sure both drop down boxes are set to "DMA If Available". If they are not change them and reboot. Get back to the Advanced tab and look at the Current Mode box. It should say Ultra DMA Mode, or Multi-Word DMA 2. If it still says PIO Mode then you should try installing the latest IDE drivers for your motherboard.

 

[fragusmaximus]

Yep, DMS if Available is enabled and it reports Ultra DMS mode 2 is the current transfer mode.
I followed your advice after I reinstalled in my XP machine. Following the instructions of the manual included, I made the Plextor master of the secondary IDE. It shares the bus with my Lite-On DVD (slaved) drive.

Thanks for your idea. Please keep them coming. In the mean time I am going to try contacting Plextor support.

 

[Tab]

What media are you using to burn?

 

[fragusmaximus]

just got off the phone with tech support on this issue. As far as I can tell, the issue with this drive has been resolved.

According to tech support, the Asus P4S8X motherboard with SiS chipset wasn't fully compliant in it's bus timing. I'm afraid I don't know that much about the technicalities. However, when I added the second jumper to the last two vertical pins on the left, the problem went away. We were even successful in upgrading the firmware to v1.03.

So in sum, it's a timing issue with all motherboards using SiS chipsets. I was told to update my drivers. For Asus, that means I need to update to v1.05 when they become available shortly. The beta version Plextor has fixes this issue. Once I update my drivers I will no longer need what I'm calling the jumper crutch.

Nice to see my first dealings with Plextor come off pleasantly.

 

[cheapherk]

If were a guessing man, I'd say the Roxio software is your problem. Roxio software is known for it's problems. Try Nero Burning ROM (Ahead Software). You can download and try it. I'd be anxious to see if Nero cures your problem. I've only owned Plextor writers (currently 40x). Try it and let us know. Here's a direct link.