ACOM Data CD-RW recognizes pre-recorded but not blanks

C

Christopher

New member
ACOM FW-CDRW blind to blank disks
OS: MacOS 9.2
CPU/Ram: G3/256MB

Comment:

Mac: beige G3 mini-tower (266 MHz; 256MB RAM)
Drive: ACOM Data External Firewire CD-R/W (24x10x40)
Firewire Port: internal card from Orange Micro
Running on MacOS 9.2. 10.1 exhibits similar blindness.

Drive came with Toast Lite; I threw money at the problem since the drive was no longer sold at CompUSA and by the time I installed it, was beyond their policy for "close-to-nil" support. My update was to Roxio Toast 5 Titanium. Also, iTunes returns similar messages regarding the inability to detect previously-unrecorded CDs.

Reads pre-recorded CDs if made the source drive rather than my built-in CD drive.
Has never recognized either of the following as "destination" writable CD:
1) Imation 10x CD-RW (compatible with 4x-10x drives)
2) TDK Music CD-R (up to 32x compatible)

Says that there is no CD in the drive only when looking at a to-be-recorded disk.

I thought - well, maybe a problem with formatting?
Remember - Roxio sees my Firewire drive and pre-recorded CDs in it and will list the contents.

Model: BTC BCE2410IM
Where: Firewire
Firmware version: A.22/MMC-3
Cache size: 1 MB
Special features: Buffer underrun prevention

No matter the combos, and whether .mp3 or .au, I always see:
"Please insert a recordable disk!"

Bad driver from ACOM Data? I didn't see one loaded.
I've tried from both MacOS 9.2 and 10.1 worlds, as I thought 9.2
needed the addition of ISO-9660 File Access and Foreign
File Access added to the System folder.
Any ideas out there?

Extensions, drivers, settings? This QA engineer is at wits end.

Appreciate suggestions, version updates, and attempted resolutions to similar probs.
Even a department or comapny that will fix the hardware?

Thanks
Chris Gray
rasputin@teleport.com
 
W

WaveGuide

New member
CD-R Discs Detected as CD-RW

Hi. Well, the problem I'm having is a bit different, but since this thread came up in the search, I figure it's a good bet someone else will also find this, and perhaps have some answers.

I have a Sony CRX168B. Sony's so-called "support" is a total joke, and offered no help of any kind. I just got the drive, and have only gotten to make about 10 discs, all came out fine. Suddenly, it has stopped working properly. I had not made any changes to the system. It doesn't detect all discs, even ones I made in it. It does detect audio discs, and I can even do audio extraction, which proves that the IDE port is able to talk to it. However, it thinks all blanks are CD-RW, and windows explorer shows them as having 648MB free. Since windows has no native support for CD-R's, it should show them as having 0 bites free, not to mention that the discs are actually 700MB. I checked all configuration stuff, and even tried using a different IDE port. I also cleaned the lens, although it looked clean. None of this had any effect whatsoever. About the only thing I haven't tried is to let the burning software go ahead with making a disc even though it fails the test immediately, no matter what speed. One thing I noticed, is that the data buffer shown in the software (NTI CD MAker) never shows anything, as if it can't buffer the data. I first thought perhaps this might be due to insufficiant space on the HD, but I ruled that out. What I cannot be certain of, is how long it takes for the buffer to fill up, or if the error is preventing it from happening.

I basically conclude thus far, that the drive has gone bad. Either firmware, hardware, or both. I wanted to try replacing the firmware, incase somehow it has become corrupted, but sony does not have a utility for this. They only have updaters for a few drives, and of course this one is not among them.

I just now put in a blank CD-R disc, and accessed it with a DOS prompt. This is what I got:
-----------------------------------
Volume in drive H has no label
Volume Serial Number is 0000-0777
Directory of H:\

File not found
679,477,248 bytes free
-----------------------------------

I think this is a long shot, but I'm hoping for some way to get this thing to work again. I just might try burning a disc anyway, just to see what happens.
 
Duracell

Duracell

1
WaveGuide said:
I just now put in a blank CD-R disc, and accessed it with a DOS prompt. This is what I got:
-----------------------------------
Volume in drive H has no label
Volume Serial Number is 0000-0777
Directory of H:\

File not found
679,477,248 bytes free
-----------------------------------
Click to expand...
DOS promt in a running Windows environment or "real DOS" booted from a W9x boot floppy?
 
W

WaveGuide

New member
Duracell said:
DOS promt in a running Windows environment or "real DOS" booted from a W9x boot floppy?
Click to expand...
A DOS window. I read that xp has built in burner support, but I'm not running that. I should have mentioned that the discs it can't read also show up as blanks with 648MB free, and are seen as CD-RW in NTI.

I have since discovered that it is able to read discs if I power down for a litle while, but it stops working quite soon (only get to check maybe two discs), so it would take repeated shutdowns to test all disc types. I had hoped this might be due to leaky capacitors, since sony is notorious for this, so I replaced all that could be causing this problem. This too had no effect, but it did waste time and give me a headache.

My thinking (and hope) is that since the laser isn't being powered all the time, simply letting the drive rest would NOT help it to read another disc. Because if it did, this would be an indication of a laser problem, such that the heat produced in the emitter results in failer. Only a total powerdown and resting period seems to give it that brief operability, so to be the laser, it would have to be effected by ambient temperature. My system stays quite cool, so ambient heat should be of no concern here.

I just thought of a few things to try, not that any of them would make it work, but might provide insight as to the cause. I will do those and report back later.
 
Last edited:
Duracell

Duracell

1
about the DOS promt in Windows, this is not an profitable testimony; try the test again with plain DOS (choosed "CD drives support") fresh booted from an old W9x boot floppy;

and a general trouble maker is "Hide Media" function in CloneCD or Alcohol 120%; Anyone of both installed?
disabling XP's native burning engine IMAPI is reasonable too;
 
W

WaveGuide

New member
Duracell said:
about the DOS promt in Windows, this is not an profitable testimony; try the test again with plain DOS (choosed "CD drives support") fresh booted from an old W9x boot floppy;

and a general trouble maker is "Hide Media" function in CloneCD or Alcohol 120%; Anyone of both installed?
disabling XP's native burning engine IMAPI is reasonable too;
Click to expand...
Well, I didn't mean that the DOS window was the all-important test, only that it was the same as windows explorer. The fact that blanks and non-readables show as blank CD-RW's, even those that DO read if I check them right away after a cold start, says that there is indeed something wrong with the drive. The "hide media" thing is not an issue, and non of those apps are installed anyway. I am not running xp either.

My only question now, is NOT one of configuration, but if anyone else has had something similar happen, and found the cause. I suspect however, that I am about to spend money on a new one.
 
Duracell

Duracell

1
your problem is presumably a Windows (or *.vxd) problem and not hardware related, because you said "and I can even do audio extraction";

to exclude all those Windows problems, i did suggest plain DOS;
 
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WaveGuide

New member
Duracell said:
your problem is presumably a Windows (or *.vxd) problem and not hardware related, because you said "and I can even do audio extraction";

to exclude all those Windows problems, i did suggest plain DOS;
Click to expand...
While there's no doubt that windows can make things look different than they really are, that still does not explain the fact that the drive can work from a cold boot, then quickly fails. Note also that a simple restart (even a powering off) does not do this. It's only when the system is left off for a long enough period, as if heat is causing some problem. Virtual device drivers (vxd's) do not enter the picture either, since the drive does not require anything but standard DOS CD drivers. If it did, I could't do the DOS floppy test anyway.

Remeber now, I can start with a cold system, put in a disc, and it can read it. Then, put in another disc, and it might read it if I switched discs fast enough. Then I can go back to the first disc, and it likely cannot read it properly.

CD drives initialize discs when you put them in, even without a driver loaded. That's why a disc will spin up for a brief period when you first put it in. However, this drive won't do that either after if begins to fail. Let me reiterate: It will initialize the first disc from a cold boot, then I can simply eject and reinsert the same CD, and after a few times it no longer initializes. This is regardless of "auto-insert notification".

To prove my thoery further, I will now boot to plain old DOS, and try this test. Then I will return here to report my findings.
 
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WaveGuide

New member
Well, the drive also has the same trouble in DOS, and even has trouble before loading any DOS CD ROM drivers. That is to say, it can't initialize most discs at any point before or after drivers load, even before booting an OS. Audio CD's seem to take longer to initialize than they used to, so the drive is degrading over time. I am now trying to play an entire CD to see what happens. I do expect total failure is imminent.
 
S

scarecrow

1
Under DOS prompt you can only read properly ISO9660 filesystems, everything that exheeds the ISO9660 restrictions will be either unreadable or not properly mounted.
 
Duracell

Duracell

1
WaveGuide said:
Well, the drive also has the same trouble in DOS, and even has trouble before loading any DOS CD ROM drivers.
Click to expand...
dusty optics or faulty mechanics; so it's time for cleaning (compressed air) or replacing the whole drive;
 
W

WaveGuide

New member
Duracell said:
dusty optics or faulty mechanics; so it's time for cleaning (compressed air) or replacing the whole drive;
Click to expand...
I alread stated in an earlier post, that I cleaded the lens even though it was not in need of it. Being a new drive, it has not had a chance to get dusty. I already know the drive is faulty, and only posted here in the slim chance that someone else had the same trouble, and found the problem.
 
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