Re: CD-Burn: Not as green as a Brussels Sprout!

In article <53c5a4e54d.Wendy@xxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Wendy Gray <newsgrps@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Spurred on by comments from others about using CDs as a back up method,
> as opposed to zips and having decided to give it another go copying a
> music CD (AND read TFM assiduously!) I am beginning to think that lack
> of success isn't just down to me being stupid and not very
> technologically ept. Steffan himself showed me, at the Utrecht Show and
> it did look remarkably easy.

Do be aware a lot of music CDs adopted copy protection methods to prevent
copying.

> Which still leaves the problems.

> I'm using a SA RPC 3.1 computer. I initialy thought the problem was to
> do with the CD reader in the machine. The only way I can play a music CD
> and hear it is to put headphones in the CD socket on the front. The
> external speakers play things from the hard drive OK. IIRC it is an
> early machine, mussing some link to somewhere. I found the receiept and
> the gentleman we got it from bought it in 1996. CD-Burn identifies its
> 'read' drive as CDFS:0 MATSHIACD-ROM. It functions fine on both audio
> and data cd-roms.

There should be a connecting cable, only a couple of wires, between the
rear of the CD drive and somewhere on the rpc motherboard.

My original RPC only had 8bit sound and I bought a Yellowstone mixer board
(quite small) which fitted onto a header near the back of the computer
near the power supply. This had a header on which to plug the CD audio
lead. On my current one it plugs directly onto the motherboard in the
same area.

> The CD burner (which we have never succeeded in getting to work) was
> bought at a Wakefield Show, at the same time as we bought the original
> CD-Burn disk (v.0.11) Serial number in the low 300s. That might date it
> for someone? I can't find the receipt for it, which is unusual as we
> have files of such info going back decades! Our current version of
> CD-Burn is 1.16 with a different serial number. CD-Burn identifies the
> 'write' drive as SCSI3:YAMAHA CRW8424S.

My Yamaha drive failed very early on after only a few burns. Lots of other
people were experiencing the same problems with Yamaha drives.

The current version of CDBurn is 1.61

> The computer, software and CD writing machine are successfully talking to
> each other and yes, everything is switched on :-)

> In the past, my failed attempts at copying a CD were based on using
> 'Copy A CD' as that seemed the easiest. This time I ventured into more
> difficult territory; Creating an Audio CD! Mindful of other recent
> comments, I set read speed to 2 and write speed to 1.

> I successfully managed to 'sample' the files, rename them and get them
> onto the HD. Yehee! we're in business I thought. I'm not thick after
> all. And there's nothing wrong with the RPC or the CD reader or CDFS if
> it can get that far.

I have burnt audio CDs but not for a very long time. I was using a Irlam
i16 card to record "live" sound. Mostly I just burn data CDs for backing
stuff up.

> The next step being to write to the new disk, I encountered problems.
> For the first time I noticed that putting CDs into the Yamaha, the
> little light was going orange, not green, for 'on/disk'. (I've never
> looked before).

IIRC it does do this. It acknowledges there is a CD in the drive by
lighting orange, spins up and looks to see what the CD is then when it is
happy the light turns green

> I used CD-Tools to investigate. (All the CDs used were brand new - I
> bust a nail whilst getting rid of the cellophane wrappers, adding injury
> to insult!)

> I started with several TDK d-view CD-recordable disks (up to 32x). All
> gave the orange light and CD-Tools labelled them 'unknown'.

> Next I tried several Verbatim Datalife Plus CR-584 CD-RW 2x/4x disks.
> CD-Tools reported these as 'Drive Empty'.

> I had more success with a Kodak CD-R Ultima 80 1x to 24x disk. This was
> 'Ready to Write' so off I went. All looked as though it was going well.
> Both machines fluttered their 'eyes' in turn and satisfying whirrs were
> heard. The eggtimer showed track one being written and got up to 50%, at
> which time I left the room for a few minutes. When I returned, after
> about 2 minutes, there was a message on the screen saying "CD writer has
> detected a hardware error. Try to switch off and on."

> I did that, then assumed I could restart. No. "The Devise reports a
> medium error" and "Devise is not ready". Switched off and on again, got
> the green light, checked with CD-Tools and off we went again.

The stream of data to the drive /must/ be continuous. If it gets
interrupted for any reason it will fail.

> To cut to the chase, this happened several times on each of 3 seperate
> Kodak discs.

Kodak discs had a reputation for being very good. I used nothing else till
I couldn't get them any more.

> Having reached the end of my tether, I now appeal here for help. The
> hardware all seems to work OK, but how can so many disks of 3 different
> brands fail? Is the Yamaha at fault?

Possibly.

I normally burn at 4x. Are you creating the image first or "burning on the
fly"

--
Stuart Winsor

>From is valid but subject to change without notice if it gets spammed.

For Barn dances and folk evenings in the Coventry and Warwickshire area
See: http://www.barndance.org.uk
.

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