[Zoom]

I've got an old Power Computing PowerBase200 that I've upgraded to a G3 processor with a daughter card from Newer Technology, I think... can't recall for sure. It's running 8.6 (not 8.6.1). I'm going to try to update it, but may not get around to it. (It's my mom's now and I'm visiting for Thanksgiving.)

Anyway, the thing came with a Philips CD drive, something like an 8x I think, don't know the make. I also installed a Yamaha 4x4x16x CDR/CDRW drive (SCSI). That came with Toast 4, also installed.

Now, all this stuff used to work. But now the stock CD drive won't recognize burned CDR disks at all. And the Yamaha drive doesn't even show up in the system profile and won't eject when you press the button on the drive.

The clone system came with CDROM Toolkit, which I managed to upgrade to version 3.0.

So, I've got the CDROM Toolkit extension and control panel active, as well as the Toast CD Reader 4.1.2. I deactivated the Apple CD/DVD driver because it seemed to conflict with the CDROM Toolkit extension.

Anyone know what combination of extensions I should be using here? Will any combination work for both drives? Will upgrading to 8.6.1 help? (Is OS 9 even an option for this machine?)

Do I need to get some sort of new drive utility to make all of this work?

[drewman]

Try just having the Toast CD-Reader extension enabled. It does all the work that CD-Toolkit would - they may be conflicting.

drewman

[Zoom]

After some painstaking research, I have some hard data.

I've tried ALL combinations of the following:
- Apple CD/DVD Driver v1.2.2
- CDROM Toolkit Extension (and the CP) v3.01
- Toast CD Reader v4.1.2

The Yamaha drive was just in some sort of limbo. Shutting down and starting up the machine (as opposed to just restarting) seemed to wake up the Yahama drive.

So, I have two CD drives: a Philips PCA80SC (stock in PB200) and a Yamaha CRW4416S burner - both SCSI, both internal.

Here are the test results for each drive. I hope this comes out right with the spacing...

Philips

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1"face="Geneva, Verdana, Arial">code:</font><HR><pre><font size=1 face=courier>
EXTs CDROM audio CDR
ALL X X -
Toast, CTK X X -
Toast, Apple - - -
CTK, Apple X X -
Toast - - -
CTK X X -
Apple - - -
</font>[/code]

Yamaha

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1"face="Geneva, Verdana, Arial">code:</font><HR><pre><font size=1 face=courier>
EXTs CDROM audio CDR
ALL X X X
Toast, CTK X X X
Toast, Apple X X X
CTK, Apple - - -
Toast X X X
CTK - - -
Apple - - -
</font>[/code]

So, in summary: I need CDT for the Philips drive and I need Toast for the Yamaha drive. And apparently, I can have them both at the same time, though I'll bet there's a conflict that causes the Yamaha to freeze up sometimes.

I wonder if there's a way to get one of those Toast support files for the Philips drive, but I couldn't find any such files on the Roxio web site. I don't know where they are. I found one for this Yamaha, actually, a couple years ago and I'm using it here now. Maybe they don't control readers.

So, I've got something semi-workable, though I'd love to have one thing that worked for everything because I'll bet the CTK and Toast extensions are interfering with one another.

I can't find anything on MacFixIt about this, either. Anyone know someplace else I can try? Is there still anything out there dedicated to Power Computing?

[Added the "code" tags to fix spacing.]

[ 11-23-2001: Message edited by: Zoom ]

[Eric E.]

First, make sure that the SCSI ID in the two drives are different. You're probably OK on that, but double check anyway.

Second, from experience when I used to have OS 8.6, I would ditch those 3 extensions that you mentioned - Apple CD/DVD, CD-Rom Toolkit, and Toast CD Reader. I made up a folder called "Disabled Extensions" placed in my HD and that's where I put most of my old & unused extensions. After which, you can do either 2 of the following:1) Upgrade to Toast 5.0 or just get a copy of the Toast 5.0 CD Reader Extension from someone else, or 2) Go to IntechUSA.com and start using their CD/DVD Speedtools (I think they're up to version 5.7 now).

If you don't want to spend too much time, money & effort on this project, assuming every component are attached correctly, you may be able to get away with using just the Toast CD Reader in your Extensions Folder. An extensions conflict among the 3 of them is the most likely reason the 2 drives don't work properly together.

Eric

[Zoom]

So, you think Toast 5 Ti will work for both drives? I've got a copy of that at home. Hmmm. That's a thought.

Can anyone else back this theory up?

I definitely can't get by without both Toast 4 and CTK - look at the data above. It seems that CDT drives the Philips reader and Toast drives the Yamaha writer. (Note that audio CDs show up on the desktop with two different icons depending on which drive I use. With the reader, I get the hammer symbol thing of CTK, and in the writer I get a disk with a treble clef on it, which I'm assuming comes from Toast.)

Note that I also have SoundJam MP on this machine. Does that extension play into this at all?

[Zoom]

Okay, I tried Toast CD Reader 5 and it didn't work.

BUT... I think I may have figured out some more. It will recognize a 650MB disk, but not a 700MB disk. Is it possible that older drives would have this problem?? I would think this would be covered by the driver, but maybe it's somehow built into the drive?? The Philips still won't recognize any CDR disk, but the Yamaha will recognize only the older 650MB disks. The 700MB it says are unreadable and wants to initialize it.

Tonight's my last night here. Anyone else have any ideas how I might get around this?

[Zoom]

I'm still interested in an answer, besides "buy another driver". Is that my only option? What exactly does Toast CD Reader do? If it's a multi-purpose CD driver, why can't it seem to drive the Philips drive? DO I need one of those support files - and if so, where do I find it?