[[osX]RTouris]

I've been strugling for the last couple of days to get my SuperMac C500 read CDs using the internal SCSI CD-Rom with no luck. This is what actually happens: I had OS 8.6 installed. I inserted a CD, the CD spinned up, but no CD showed on the desktop. I said maybe it's the driver...I copied an Apple CD/DVD driver from a backup system, same thing. The strange thing is that it doesn't even boot up from a bootable 8.5 or 9.0 CD, BUT if insert my G4's Apple System CD (G4 PCI, OS 8.6) in the drive as the SuperMac starts up, then it recognizes it and shows it on the desktop after the Mac has booted from the HD. Just a sidenote here getting info on a mounted CD reads: "SCSI 0:3 (a)"... That "(a)" thing I don't think I've seen before next to the SCSI, any comments? The cool thing about it is that following that procedure enables the SuperMac to read all the CDs inserted after that. Until the next reboot that is. Cause if I don't have the System CD in the drive then it reverts back to the state when it won't read anything at all. Drive setup recognizes the device, but fails to comment on the volume if the G4's system CD wasn't present during startup, SCSI probe 5.1.1 fails to mount the CD... Today I installed OS 9.0. The situation remains the same unfortunatelly. One more thing, I've tested it with minimal extensions set, I also took out all the PCI cards e.t.c... Anyone knows what could be wrong here?

[serranot]

It is likely that the CD-ROM in your machine is not an Apple-branded CD-ROM. Thus, unless you use one of the Apple CD-ROM driver hacks that are out there, you will need to get a 3rd-party CD-ROM driver such as CD-Rom toolkit from FWB.

That's also the reason most of your CDs won't boot--the CDs you're trying to load have only an Apple driver on them.

Tom

[Sgooter]

I agree with Tom it is probably an issue with your CD-ROM driver. Recently I've started to use Speedtools from Intechusa (http://www.intechusa.com) and have found their drivers to be much more reliable than FWB and you get free upgrades for LIFE! You'll need to disable the Apple Driver extension when you install the new driver, otherwise your conflict will continue.

Good luck - Steve

[Walter J. Ferstl]

If your CD-ROM drive happens to be a NEC, you may download a Mac driver suite for several drives here:

ftp://ftp.nectech.com/pub/peripherals/mac-cd/

or here, respectively:

ftp://ftp.nectech.com/pub/peripherals/mac-cd/speedycd.hqx

Regards,

Walter.

[Walter J. Ferstl]

You can use Apple System Profiler to look up which brand and type of CD-ROM drive you have (second tab from left, called "Drives" or something similar).

I understand that Apple System Profiler works with a Mac clone, too (I am not experienced withg them at all).

Walter.

[Allah]

I had the same problem with my StarMax. I have a hacked driver for 8.6 I could send. It works great.