Problems with Mitsumi CR-480ATE

[kerze]

Hi everybody:

Just got a Mitsumi CR-480ATE (32x12x40x) for Christmas. This is my first CDRW. Installed it yesterday as Secondary IDE Master (my regular CD ROM is a Samung and I switched that over to Secondary Slave). Turned it on and it appeared as D: with the CD ROM moving to E:. I installed the OEM version of NERO by using the CDRW and it had no problem opening it and running it. However when I ran NERO to try and do a burn it locked up while scanning for SCSI/IDE. Did a CTRL-ALT-DEL and after that I couldn't look at My Computer. Did this a few times yesterday and today. Eventually ended up with registry problems and had to uninstall Nero to fix. Now when I boot up the computer doesn't recognize the CDRW. My computer is an E-Machine with a Cyrix MII-366MMX with a 3.2 GB HD (I have about 900MB free), 96 MB of RAM, Windows 98. If I go into BIOS at startup it is recognizing the CDRW and it is included in the startup details but Windows is not recognizing it either in My Computer or in Device Manager. It is recognizing the Samsung CDROM. I have checked the connections and the jumpers are set correctly to Master and Slave and the red side of the IDE Cable is aligned with 1 and the power is OK. I can open and close the CDRW no problem. And if I put a disk in the CDRW the green light comes on and then stays yellow. I even tried disconnecting everything to do with the CDRW, changing the CDROM to Master rebooting, then shutting down and then hooking the CDRW back up as Master and changing the CDROM back to Slave. This does not help. I am at wits end with what could be wrong. I will probably call SamTack support tomorrow (the distributor) but I was wondering if anyone could help me. Thanks for any help provided in advane.

[Inertia]

This could possibly be an ASPI problem:

Make sure that the ASPI layer is properly installed. Go to cyrus-troy Downloads and download the ASPI Check and Force ASPI programs.

Run ASPI Check to see if the installation is properly installed and is version 4.60 (1021). If this is not the case, unzip (extract) ForceASPI, read the Index.htm file carefully, and run the program. ForceASPI will repair and properly install the current ASPI layer.

Reboot, run ASPI Check again, and if correct, see if the drive is recognized properly and Nero burns properly.

[kerze]

Thanks Inertia:

Ran ASPI Check and there was a problem. Then ran the Dump and Install programs from Force. Rebooted and ran ASPI check again and it was 4.60 with one Host adapter present with version 4.60 for all files. However there was no CDRW in My Computer or Device Manager. I then remembered that I needed to install the SCSI adapter for my scanner which then automatically installed my scanner. I then again rebooted and when I ran ASPI Check I now had 2 host adapters present. However still no CD RW . But an improvement still. Thanks for the quick reply.

[kerze]

Just an update . I tried switching cables from the cable that was in the computer already to the one shipped with the CDRW. Still the same problem = BIOS recognizes the CDRW (If I use detect on BIOS setup then it will recognize the CDRW as Sec. Mast. and the CD ROM as Sec. Slave) but Windows 98 only recognizes the CD ROM (i.e. no drive letter assigned to CD RW and CD RW does not appears on device manager). Would re-installing Windows 98 help?

[kerze]

A further update. I called Mitsumi tech support and they seemed to think that the problem was with my IDE Controllers. So I went to Via Technologies website and downloaded the latest 4 in 1 pack which updated by chipset drivers plus the drivers for the Busmaster Controller and the Primary and Secondary IDE controllers. I informed Mitsumi of this and they still seemed to think that it is a system problem not a CDRW problem as BIOS is recognizing the CDRW but not Windows 98. Are they feeding me a line of b/s.

Another point I didn't bring up is that if I stick a CD into the CDRW it flashes green and then stops spinning and turns solid yellow and the yellow light stays on as long as their is a CD in the drive. Is this normal?