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Trouble with Smart and Friendly Imation CD-R 8 X 20 CD drive

mraroid

mraroid

6502
Hi....
 
I had been using a CD reader with my Color Classic.  But I needed a CD drive that I could use to burn CDs from my Color Classic.  So I bought a external Smart and Friendly Imation CD-R  8 X 20 CD drive. 
 
I used it when I upgraded my Color Classic to 8.1.  The install went perfect.  But after the install, I found that none of the CDs I put into the drive would ever appear on my desktop.  This included the apple branded 8.1 CD I had used to install my OS.  So I put the 8.1 CD back in the CD drive, rebooted with the "C" key depressed.  It booted to my CD.  After that, I ejected the apple 8.1 CD, and stuck in one of my own CDs.  When I do that, it will appear on my desktop and I can used it. But I can only do that a few times, then it quits.
 
I tried to install Toast 4.1.3.  When I launched Toast I get an error message that says:
 
"An unknown Driver is installed for the CD recorder at SCSI bus 0 ID 4.  If you run into problems please remember to disable the driver next time."
 
I formatted my CF card before the install of 8.1 and I had not installed any other software.  So the only CD driver that could be on my color classic is one that 8.1 installed.
 
I do not know how to find that driver and remove it or disable it.
 
Could this be why I have having issues with this CD unit?
 
Originally it was on ID 3.  I changed it to ID 4 and had the same issue.  I have a terminating resistor plugged into the back of this drive and I believe it is good.
 
Anyone have a manual for this CD drive? I found nothing on the internet.
 
Any suggestions welcome.
 
Thanks
 
mraroid
 
 
If I remember correctly, the built in drivers for CD-ROM drives in Mac OS only support Apple's own CD drives.

One good place to start would be (if you have not already) to download and install CD-Sunrise, which should at least give you the ability to read discs using the new drive. I don't know if this will be sufficient for Toast 4 to be able to write to it, or if a more specific driver (such as the one Imation would have shipped with it) will be needed.

You will not specifically need to remove Apple's CD driver when you put CD Sunrise into the system folder, although you can. It should appear in the Extensions as something to the effect of "Apple CD Support" or "CD-ROM". On any system with Extension Manager (7.6 and 8.1 for sure) it may be listed as a package you can disable all at once. (The package/group if there is one will likely also disable a few different things, PhotoCD, ISO9660, and High Sierra, you may want those things so it's probably worth being careful at what you disable, or just go reenable it if you need it.)

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thank you for your post Cory5412.  I installed Sunrise and it seemed to work perfect.  I could drop CDs into my drive and it read them correctly.  Then I got the clock logo and the system would freeze up.  I rebooted and had the same issue.  I rebooted again and the Sunrise extension was X'ed out.  Humm.  I think I must have a driver conflict some place. 

Can you advise me on how to un install any other CD driver that might be loaded in 8.1?  I am not even sure what to look for...

Thanks again for helping me.  I think Sunrise is the solution.

mraroid
 
Look for the Apple CD-ROM extension. You can use extension manager to disable it. You may also have to disable the ones Cory talked about.

 
Thank you gentleman for the posts...
 
I was able to find "Apple CD- ROM" in the extensions. I un checked it and rebooted. Still had the same issue again so I rebooted yet again.  This time the Sunrise icon loaded and it did not have a red X across it. 
 
I un checked Sunrise and booted again.  No errors.  I plugged in my old read only CD drive (made by Sun Microsystems) and it worked perfect.  I booted from 8.1 to 7.6 and un checked both the apple CD-ROM and Sunrise.  The Sun unit worked perfect.
 
I need to burn large files from my CC to a CD, so I re installed the Smart and Friendly drive and enabled Sunrise.  It took two full reboots for it to load with out a red X across it.  Once while in 8.1 I got the ticking clock and no mouse and had to hard reboot.  Never in 7.6.
 
I have no little software on this machine and don't know what is causing this lockup.  If it keeps going, I will remove Sunrise and see if my problem goes away.
 
Why will my Sun Mictosystems CD reader work with no driver?
 
I am running a LC 575 logic board in my Color Classic.  I have installed a full 68040 processor in it and I have over 125MBs of RAM.  I think I can burn CDs, and if I make a few coasters,I can live with that.  I usually burn at a rate slower then the drive is rated for anyway.  So on my 8X drive, I will probably try to burn at 4X.
 
If you think your drive it self is exactly like mine, do you know where i can flash mine?  I have no idea how old mine is and do not know wow to tell.  Was it made before 8.1 was released?  Do you have documentation on your Plextor you can share?
 
I can always dissemble my big box that the CD drive is in and see if I can find any model numbers or dates....
 
Thanks for the help. pictures enclosed.
 
mraroid
 
sf1.jpg

 
The drive is in a Smart and Friendly branded case (someone swapped the original drive out), but its the same model. The drive was released in 1999 or so, I don't recall having any problems getting it to work with the CD Sunrise driver or the "universal" Apple CD driver. The only documentation that came with the Plextor PX-R820T drive is the jumper settings, which should be on the label of the drive itself if you open up the case. I would check the obvious, like is the SCSI ID set correctly, and is the drive terminated if its the last device on the SCSI chain. Lock ups could be SCSI problems, not a driver problem.

Don't worry about flashing the firmware, the Imation and Plextor firmware is identical outside of the ID string.

 
It looks like my install of 8.1 is not happy with Sunrise.  8.1 gave me the small clock icon, and then the entire system froze up yet again.  When I did a hard re boot the Sunrise icon had a red line across it and it did not load, but 8.1 works fine. 

I have not spent much time rebooting into 7.6, but so far, I think 7.6 works just fine with Sunrise.  I have un checked the apple CD-ROM extension (in both 7.6 and 8.1), so that is not the problem.  I will try to see if I can burn OK under 7.6.

I will open the smart and friendly case and see if I can find some details (model number maybe?) on the Imation CD-R drive.

Thanks everyone for the help and suggestions.

mraroid

 
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