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killer_735 · May 1, 2003, 05:00 PM

Hey..I'm out here working on an old UMAX clone. (603e/240)

I've been playing with the thing all day, finally got os9.1 to install and the network to work okay, when the CD drive (scsi) starts not registering anything on perfectly okay CDs. It spins up, looks like it's going to read, and no dice. Hardware problem is out- I can use the os9.1 cd to boot from, but CD-Rs, and the filemaker cd, which read fine before the install, suddenly don't register.

So, in other words, most of the CDs aren't mounting. The CD drive is there in the HW profile, but the driver appears to be not found. (Any ideas where I can get one? Apple's site doesn't appear to be any help...)

Got a fix? First one to figure out the problem gets a GhettoMac Hardware Troubleshooting Merit Badge!

boardsurfer · May 1, 2003, 05:09 PM

sorry to bump your thread, but:

GhettoMac Hardware Troubleshooting Merit Badge

Ha ROFL!!

goMac · May 1, 2003, 05:23 PM

It may have come with 3rd party drivers, and it may not work with the Apple CD Drivers.

Strangely you can boot from cd's even if the cd drive is not Apple CD Driver compatible.

Do you have the original system software cd?

slider · May 1, 2003, 06:55 PM

Yeah, I tinkered with these some of these UMAX machines, probably the same on. Did you do a clean install with the original CD's? You have to install the UMAX CD, I think it has system 7.6, then you can upgrade to 9 and then to 9.1. There is a little CD ROM glitch, something about the cache, can't remember the details, I think you can do something about it or just click through the warning when it comes up and software CD's work fine. It's slow as dog, with OS 9.1, but will run. If you had all of the previous software on there already, I don't know what to tell you. I finally just told my boss to get a new Mac for one of his machines. I remember spending all day with two of them too. It really is not worth it, but sometimes it not you're call. Good luck.

Feng · May 1, 2003, 07:09 PM

Have you tried modifying your CD-Rom driver?

http://www.resexcellence.com/hack_ht...12-21-98.shtml

Coldwater · May 1, 2003, 11:04 PM

When the UMAX OS was installed it installed FWB drivers for the HD and CD. May want to check the extensions for these drivers as they always were conflicting with drivers that the apple OS would install when upgrading.

bradoesch · May 1, 2003, 11:46 PM

I've got a StarMax 3000/240 (very similar to your machine) and solved my CD-ROM troubles in OS 9 by using the driver that came with 7.6. I'm uisng CD-ROM toolkit now though.

jaisun · May 2, 2003, 11:31 AM

I agree with the recommendation on using CD ROM toolkit or a hacked driver. However, I've found that installing a SCSI CDR/W while using Toast's free CD ROM driver (you can find it at versiontracker.com) works like a charm. This is obviously the more expensive route, but it's quite reliable, works with a large variety of drives and as an added bonus you can burn CDs!

Anyway, good luck!

killer_735 · May 6, 2003, 10:55 AM

Hey thanks a lot...I was able to run the driver hack using resedit. GhettoMac Merit Badges for everyone!

One note though...I can't believe that CD-Rom toolkit is 49.99. Crimey, I know it's got some nice functionality, but if anyone tried to make a PC user pay for a third-party driver, they'd get laughed off the net. Let's not forget the difference between Apple making people pay for good engineering and some software company thinking they can take advantage of the people who think there's only one way around a problem.

tooki · May 8, 2003, 07:33 PM

Actually, CD-ROM Toolkit harks from the days when people (both on Macs and PCs) did shop around for and buy third-party CD-ROM drivers! There was a big market for them, some had fancy caching, others supported more drives, etc, etc.

Nowadays the drives are fast enough that fancy caching isn't all that useful, and people have become accustomed to using their OS's generic drivers.

tooki

SpringArmor · May 10, 2003, 07:35 PM

Originally posted by tooki:
Actually, CD-ROM Toolkit harks from the days when people (both on Macs and PCs) did shop around for and buy third-party CD-ROM drivers! There was a big market for them, some had fancy caching, others supported more drives, etc, etc.

Nowadays the drives are fast enough that fancy caching isn't all that useful, and people have become accustomed to using their OS's generic drivers.

tooki

Actually the caching algorithm in CDT is busted. It has been busted since version 3.0.2 of CDT.

Don't believe me? Try running some speed test on the product.

Also, CDT doesn't support a lot of new drives--the device support list has been the same since 2001.

Eric E. · May 11, 2003, 06:53 AM

Alternatives to CD-Rom Toolkit are:

1) Intech's CD-Rom Speed Tools, which you can try (and maybe purchase) at www.intechusa.com.

2) Roxio's Toast (yes, the CD Recording software) which is now on Version 5.xx for OS 9.1. The program installs a CD-Rom Reader extension which works with a variety of CD drives, recordables or not. You may want to purchase a internal CD-RW drive with the SCSI interface, which is a bit rare nowadays but are still available. It will definetely add some more functionality to your old computer.

Eric

Ian McEwan · May 11, 2003, 05:57 PM

Originally posted by Eric E.:
Alternatives to CD-Rom Toolkit are:

1) Intech's CD-Rom Speed Tools, which you can try (and maybe purchase) at www.intechusa.com.

2) Roxio's Toast (yes, the CD Recording software) which is now on Version 5.xx for OS 9.1. The program installs a CD-Rom Reader extension which works with a variety of CD drives, recordables or not. You may want to purchase a internal CD-RW drive with the SCSI interface, which is a bit rare nowadays but are still available. It will definetely add some more functionality to your old computer.

Eric

Get Intech... It supports a lot more drives.

CDT doesn't support VPC and even FWB's own SoftWindows! Also, VCD support is not availble for many new drives. The CD Equalizer ships with CDT doesn't work with any machines shipped after 1999, and like SpringArmor mentioned, the read-ahead cache in CDT has been busted since version 3.0.2.

tooki · May 12, 2003, 07:29 PM

Originally posted by SpringArmor:
Actually the caching algorithm in CDT is busted. It has been busted since version 3.0.2 of CDT.

Don't believe me? Try running some speed test on the product.

Also, CDT doesn't support a lot of new drives--the device support list has been the same since 2001.

Oh, I believe you that the caching doesn't help nowadays. It was designed for slow drives, and those algorithms do no good at all for fast drives. That said, I haven't used CDT for years, other than the simple read extension for the CD-ROM drive in my old PowerCenter Pro.

I'm also not surprised that CDT hasn't been updated in eons. That product was useful back when CD-ROM drives were pricey accessories. Nowadays, every computer comes with an optical drive standard, and thus comes with drivers for it, too.

Never mind that more recent drives follow a standardized command set (MMC/MMC2) so that generic driver support is now really all that's necessary.

tooki