[BTP]

I am burning CD's with a Lite-On 16x CDRW and Toast 5.0.1 on a w/ a PowerTower Pro G3 450, 160MB RAM running 9.1.

On to the problem...CD's burn fine and will mount on the PowerTower Pro, but will not even load on my iBook in OS X or 9.x.

Does anyone have an idea of what is happening? Or what I might do to try and diagnose/fix this?

The iBook spins up the CD, but nothing happens after that. Not even an error messge. I am stumped.

[wANCO tHE sANE]

Have you checked that the format is right?

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

CD-ROM Drives have a hard time reading CD-RW disks.

You need to READ the CD-RW disks with the CD-RW burner.
Crappy but true.[/LIST]

[Evangellydonut]

Try just install the "Toast CD Reader" extension that came as part of Toast Titanium 5 release. That might help...I always wondered what that extension does, and this seems like the most likely case for it.

[BTP]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I have double checked the format, it is correct. I burn audio and it plays in every CD player I can find, but won't even attempt to load in the iBook. Two spins on the CD rom and nothing after that, it is as though I have not put a CD in.

As for installing the Toast extention, I am running in OS X 99% of the time, so even if it works, I can't use it on OS X.

And Luke's severed extremity, here is a kick in the pants: I have a 16X CD-ROM and the 16X CDRW and both will read a burned CD. The 32X in the iBook just won't. Again, that could be illustrating E-donut's suggestion that the Toast reader extention is needed. Which sounds like a bad thing to me if its true.

[Paul S]

The Toast CD Reader extension is the driver that allows the OS to access a CD-R/CD-RW drive as a reader. It's the same as the Apple CD/DVD Driver extension that allows the OS to see the built-in CD drive. I doubt the Toast extension would make a difference with the drive in your iBook since it already has it's own driver installed.

[Disgruntled Head of C-3PO]

Originally posted by BTP:
<STRONG>And Luke's severed extremity, here is a kick in the pants: I have a 16X CD-ROM and the 16X CDRW and both will read a burned CD. The 32X in the iBook just won't. Again, that could be illustrating E-donut's suggestion that the Toast reader extention is needed. Which sounds like a bad thing to me if its true.</STRONG>

Here is a bigger kick. I have a 12x FireWire burner hooked up to my DVD Cube. I can burn a CD-RW and it works 100% in the burner for reading, I put this disk in the same computer in the DVD drive and it can hardly read it. This is with the Toast extention. I talked to Apple about this and they said that SOME CD-Drives can read CD-RW disks fine and other have a really hard time.

Trust me, I have read this about a million times. CD-RW disks have a hard time being read on CD-ROM/DVD drives. There was a topic with the same problem here a month ago.

[BTP]

Disgruntled Head-

So I can't use any data CDs from one to the other?

[Disgruntled Head of C-3PO]

Originally posted by BTP:
<STRONG>Disgruntled Head-

So I can't use any data CDs from one to the other?</STRONG>

This is how it works....

If you burn a CD-R disk it should work on everything.

If you burn a CD-RW disk it should only work properly (if at all) on a CD-RW burner to read it.

You shouldn't and sometimes can't read CD-RW disks on non CD-RW burners. This is because CD-RW is a hack and CD-ROM's can't read it. You can also not have a CD-RW as a boot disk.

If you ask me you should just skip CD-RW and CD-R is so damn cheap now and can be read everywere.

[BTP]

Originally posted by Disgruntled Head of C-3PO:
<STRONG>

This is how it works....

If you burn a CD-R disk it should work on everything.
</STRONG>

Sorry I never made the distinction. I am burning CD-R's not CD-RW's.

Does this mean there is something wrong that can hopefully be fixed?

[Workers Comp Wampa]

Originally posted by BTP:
<STRONG>

Sorry I never made the distinction. I am burning CD-R's not CD-RW's.

Does this mean there is something wrong that can hopefully be fixed?</STRONG>

Now you got a problem. What brand are you using of CD-R? What speed do you burn at? What format are the disks when you burn.

[westcoaster]

I notice loads of suggestions for the 'burning' machine..

Have you checked your extensions in the iBook? Sounds to me like you have one of the foreign file access/iso/whatever CD extensions off (in the 'Book)

Hope that helps

[BTP]

Originally posted by Workers Comp Wampa:
<STRONG>

Now you got a problem. What brand are you using of CD-R? What speed do you burn at? What format are the disks when you burn.</STRONG>

Oh crap.

I am using a Lite-On 16x-10x-40x via a Sonnet IDE PCI card. I am burning at 16x and I have used all the formats Mac OS, Mac OS + PC, Mac OS extended and Mac/PC extended. I also tried burning disk images too. The Lite-On is Mac compatable.

Webcoaster: I am running OS X and I don't have any extentions. If I can stop being lazy, I'll boot into 9.x and try.

[Workers Comp Wampa]

Originally posted by BTP:
<STRONG>If I can stop being lazy, I'll boot into 9.x and try.</STRONG>

Good idea.

[BTP]

Originally posted by Workers Comp Wampa:
<STRONG>

Good idea.</STRONG>

No joy. Fresh install and nothing. I installed Toast, and still nothing.

[westcoaster]

I didn't see you mention what brand of media (cd's) you're using..

Try a different brand. Not nececelery a more expensive one.. some of my longest living cd's are the cheapest bargain bin hunks of plastic ever.. that's probably not the norm though.

Try burning at a slower rate like 4x or 8x. Also.. shot in the dark.. on your 'burning' machine strip down to a minimal set of extensions + those you need to burn (Toast is about it I believe).. be sure to turn off all communications/internet stuff with that set as well.

Have you tried burning from your book to see if the problem happens in reverse?

[Cipher13]

A) Use dark blue discs. Good ones.

Mitsubishi and Verbatim are the best, IMO, but I've never had problems with TDK's either.

B) The problem is the write speed. Write the disc at 6X and it should work.

C) Clean the laser on the iBooks tray drive. Its a weak drive.

D) I've never, ever had problems reading CD-RW discs (Datastream is what I use for CDRW) on any computers except Rev. A and D iMacs which have crappy laptop CD drives. To solve that problem I just clean the laser, and it reads fine.

So - clean the laser, write the disc slower, and to good media.

As for drives having difficulty reading CDRW's, thats true, due to the way they work, but I haven't had any problems on my G4's DVD drive (Matsushita SR-8585), nor the CDRW (Yamaha CRW8424SX-VK), nor any iBook CD-ROM drive I've tried... the drive must a multi-read drive (nowadays they all are... older drives will be a problem). The most prolific probs I've had were on revision 1 iMacs (A-D).

The weak laser is part of the problem. What you have is a whole bunch of issues that just work together to accentuate each other...

Oh, and you can't dismiss the chance of it being a crappy burner too, unfortunately... I haven't used one so I won't say anything apart from: Yamaha rule.

[ 08-08-2001: Message edited by: Cipher13 ]

[BTP]

Thanks, I appreciate the advice. I tried it all, and still, the same results. I cleand the iBook drive with an Alsop CD-ROM cleaning disk, I bought new media, and I burned again at 2x, 4x, 8x, 12x and the iBook still won't recognize it. I am going to buy some 16x media and try that next. (There wasn't any at Staples yesterday.)

[BTP]

The plot thickens...

I tried the CD's on another iBook, a Lime 466/DVD, and they work fine. Then I tried pressed CD's, the 9.1 install CD for example, and it worked fine in my iBook, so the CD-ROM drive works.

Now I think that it is down to two things:

My cd-rom is not able to read them because it is damaged or broken to some degree (unlikely, I think)

or

my cd-rom is very picky about the media. I used this same exact media with a 2x Sony Spressa and never a problem.

Anyone else have an idea?

[BTP]

Mystery solved. As you all said, it was the media. I bought a few different kinds and all worked, the stuff I had must suck. It was TDK, or so I thought, but I mixed some so I don't know for sure.

I am getting 16x writes, with no problem.

Thanks to all of you for your help.

[westcoaster]

From the west coast to the east coast

SWEET.

I am about to buy a Lite On, same one as you (the Co. I work for owns a PC store - good deals! 8).. would you mind checking which CD were the baddy's? For sureTDK? What are the new ones that work so well?

thanx!

(cripes does my MacNN name lick)

[ 08-10-2001: Message edited by: westcoaster ]

[BTP]

The CD's that didn't work I can't be 100% sure of what they were. I bought 100 on a spindle and as I bought more, I kept putting them on the same spindle, mixing them to some degree. As for what worked, I bought a small packs of a few different kinds, (Sony, Maxell) and the Sony cds worked fine.

There is iTunes support for the 12x Lite On CDRW, but not for the 16x. Here is an easy hack that will change one number, a '2' to a '6', and that will make iTunes work. iTuneshelper doesn't work for this drive.

If you want to get it working with iTunes here is what you do:
(If you are afraid of ResEdit, you might not want to do this, but it is really easy)
Get software:
ITunes Authoring Support 1.1.2 (http://www.versiontracker.com)
ResEdit and Forker (http://www.resexcellence.com/resedit.shtml)
Install Forker, ResEdit.
Next install the iTunes Authoring support. NOTE: if your Mac doesn't have built in support for USBor Firwire, this will NOT install. If that is the case, get Tome Viewer and extract the LiteOn plugin.

Open the Lite On plugin with Resedit. The Resedit window will open. Select the first resource, top, left. Double click it and new window will open with two set of numbers, side by side. Double click again. A third window will open up. Scroll down, look on the right side, and near the bottom look for '1210' and change the '2' to a '6'. Save. Put the LiteOn Plug in into the Authoring Support folder under 'Extentions" and load iTunes. You are done.

Basically all this does is use the 12x driver for the 16x drive. It is the same and works fine, the hack just lets it be recognized. The number you change is the model number, 12101B to 16101B. Pretty easy, huh?

Thanks to Jarod Wilson for this hack.

[Edit. spelling and made the directions clearer]

[ 08-11-2001: Message edited by: BTP ]

[westcoaster]

Oh, that's interesting.

The 12x is a lot cheaper.. I wonder if the few minutes extra per burn wil matter..

THANKYOU for the information.
(I love ResEdit

[Disgruntled Head of C-3PO]

Originally posted by westcoaster:
<STRONG>Oh, that's interesting.

The 12x is a lot cheaper.. I wonder if the few minutes extra per burn wil matter..

THANKYOU for the information.
(I love ResEdit </STRONG>

I believe the time difference between a 12x and 16x burn is 1:10. Not worth spending more money on.