I’m having a problem getting an internal CD player in a Mac 8600 to play audio (music) disks.

I recently purchased this machine from another person and it appears he never used the internal Apple player for audio disks.

I currently have system 8.5 on the machine and will be upgrading to 8.6 shortly. I also have an external Apple 2x CD player on a SCSI chain along with an external hard drive and a Syquest removeable drive. All this is properly terminated and was working great on my Quadra 605 before I switched machines.

I can play a data disk on the internal CD player, such as an installer disk, but cannot play an audio disk. I can play a data disk or an audio disk on my external CD player with no difficulty. All I see on the desktop when I try an audio disk in the internal drive, is the icon for the disk. My Apple CD player application will not recgonize the disk. That same player WILL recognize an audio disk from my external CD player.

I have checked the SCSI ID numbers and every item connected has a different ID.

According to SCSI Probe, I have two distinct system buses and I'm not at all sure what that means but am supplying the information in the event it might be a clue.

Since this APPEARS to be a software problem, I curious if anyone has had this difficulty in the past and what the solution might be.

Thank you

[Cipher13]

Go to the Options menu -> Startup CD Drive. And select the correct drive.

Cipher13

I've tried selecting the specific drive using the option in the control strip. No matter what CD drive I select, the internal drive will not play a music CD. I simply get a message that the selected musical passage is not on the current drive. It won't show up in the Apple CD player also.

On the other hand, when the external drive is loaded with a CD, the option of selecting a different drive makes no difference either. The external drive simply allows me to play a data disk or music disk at any time.

I also don't know if a specific extension is supposed to be in the Extension Folder for either of the drives. I'm not aware of any other extension necessary just for the internal drive when the external drive operates well.

I did notice an odd item though. When I did a scan with the Apple System Profiler, I get the internal CD drive along with the internal hard drive on one bus and all the external items on another bus. I'm not certain if this is relevant but I did notice it.

[Cipher13]

You need the Audio CD extension... although, really, if the external plays it, that would lead me to believe all necessary extensions are in place, unless the external device has custom drivers that handle all of that.
Its a strange problem...
Sorry I couldn't help more.

Cipher13

I already have the Audio CD access extension in the correct folder. I also have the other extensions necessary to play CD's.

I was under the impression that these were necessary to play audio CD's but not necessarily data CD's.

Anyway, because the external CD player works well, I'm wondering now if there isn't a problem inherent in the internal CD player.

I'd like to understand what the jumpers on the back of the internal CD player are for and what happens when they get changed. There are three jumpers currently in place and three open spots where jumpers could be.

If anyone know what those jumpers control, please let me know.

The last resort is to simply try experimenting with them by removing one and watching what happens. This means the machine needs to be shut down each time but I may feel motivated enough to go that route.

Make sure that the audio CD cable on the internal CD ROM is connected to the motherboard. Newer Macs don't require this cable to play audio CDs due to Apple's drivers (in OS 9) playing it digitally. The external CD ROM drive won't be able to play Audio CDs because it does not have an audio cable. Apple did not include this feature for older Macs. Hope this helps.

It appears that I may have been too wordy in my earlier description of my computer problem. I'll make the description shorter now.

Model 8600 computer with System 8.5

There is an internal Apple CD that does not play audio CD's but will play data disks such as installer disks.

There is an external SCSI Apple CD on this system which WILL play both audio and data disks.

I'm asking why the internal CD player will not play audio CD's.

[Cipher13]

As Gromit said... check for that cable.
SCSI drives are capable of sending audio data through the SCSI bus...
I think... at least, my SCSI burner can play audio CD's, and is only connected via SCSI, so...

Cipher13

I can find no reference to using an additional cable for a CD player in ANY Mac manuals I own.

In addition, there is no place on the CD player itself to plug in an additional cable. There is a power cable which is being used and a SCSI cable which is also being used. No other connectors exist on my CD player.

I did try using an older CD extension to learn what would happen and although my exterior CD player worked just fine with both audio and data CD's, the internal CD player wouldn't even display an icon of the CD on the desktop.

When I switched back to the CD/DVD extension, the external CD player still works with audio and data CD's but the internal device only displays the icon the desktop. I still can't play the CD's if they're audio.

If anyone has any knowledge about the jumpers on the back of the CD players and what they're for, I would appreciate learning about them. It's possible mine are set incorrectly although I have not changed them.

[Cipher13]

I think the jumpers you speak of are simply for master/slave/single settings and so on...

Cipher13