Is there some sort of black art to fitting CD-ROM drives to Risc PCs?
Sometimes I can fit a CD-ROM drive and it works straight away, and other
times (like now, for instance) I can spend all day trying different
combinations of CD-ROM drive and get nowhere.
I have a StrongARM RiscPC with RISC OS 3.7 that I'm trying to clean up
to give to someone. I've put a brand-new !Boot sequence on (God bless
the RiscPC help page on snowstone.org.uk, it's a lifesaver!), and all
the supplementary bits from the RISC OS support site, so presumably I'm
up to date with driver modules. I connect a CD-ROM drive as a slave
(I've double-checked the jumpers on drive and HD), configure the extra
drive, but when I click on the new icon I invariably get "CD drive not
found". The drive doesn't even start to scan the CD when I do this, so
there seems to be no communication between computer and drive.
No CDFS modules are unplugged, and I've done hard-resets just in case
it's something I've configured and forgotten about. Does anyone know
what I've missed?
On a related note: a lot of Risc PCs I'm being given from people (and
schools) have some sort of buffer board fitted between motherboard and
CD drive. They're always stuck to the tray underneath the floppy drive.
What are these for? Are they to beat limitations in early forms of RISC
OS, for older Risc PC motherboards, or are they for pre-ATAPI drives?
On 4 Oct 2006 Kris Adcock <news@danceswithferrets.ork> wrote:
Quote:
Is there some sort of black art to fitting CD-ROM drives to Risc PCs? Sometimes I can fit a CD-ROM drive and it works straight away, and other times (like now, for instance) I can spend all day trying different combinations of CD-ROM drive and get nowhere. I have a StrongARM RiscPC with RISC OS 3.7
The CDROM drivers in 3.7 are ancient and may not work with modern high speed
drives. You will have much more sucess if you upgrade to RISC OS 4.x which
has later drivers.
In message <c6c0b2704e.druck@druck.freeuk.net>
druck <news@druck.freeuk.com> wrote:
Quote:
On 4 Oct 2006 Kris Adcock <news@danceswithferrets.ork> wrote:
Quote:
Is there some sort of black art to fitting CD-ROM drives to Risc PCs? Sometimes I can fit a CD-ROM drive and it works straight away, and other times (like now, for instance) I can spend all day trying different combinations of CD-ROM drive and get nowhere. I have a StrongARM RiscPC with RISC OS 3.7
The CDROM drivers in 3.7 are ancient and may not work with modern high speed drives. You will have much more sucess if you upgrade to RISC OS 4.x which has later drivers.
Or see my experiences reported last week. I discovered that my
collection of two Samsung drives and one from LG all work on their own
with RO3.7, but won't work when sharing an IDE cable with Maxtor disc
drives. Seagate and Connor drives work with these CDs. The error is as
you report, rather than "Drive is empty" which is the result of having
an unreadable CD, for example a rewritable CD in an old drive.
On 4-Oct-2006, Kris Adcock <news@danceswithferrets.ork> wrote:
Quote:
Is there some sort of black art to fitting CD-ROM drives to Risc PCs? Sometimes I can fit a CD-ROM drive and it works straight away, and other times (like now, for instance) I can spend all day trying different combinations of CD-ROM drive and get nowhere.
I think 'black art' describes it perfectly.
Some drives work, some work but not properly, some drives don't like working
with certain makes/models of hard drives. That's why the best advice (if you
don't have the experience) is buy from a dealer who knows that their
products will work with your setup.
After a decade of supplying CD drives for RISC OS I still get stumped
sometimes.
On 4 Oct 2006 Kris Adcock <news@danceswithferrets.ork> wrote:
Quote:
Is there some sort of black art to fitting CD-ROM drives to Risc PCs? Sometimes I can fit a CD-ROM drive and it works straight away, and other times (like now, for instance) I can spend all day trying different combinations of CD-ROM drive and get nowhere. I have a StrongARM RiscPC with RISC OS 3.7
The CDROM drivers in 3.7 are ancient and may not work with modern high speed drives. You will have much more sucess if you upgrade to RISC OS 4.x which has later drivers.
That would certainly be the ideal solution! Unfortunately, I have a
stack of RISC OS 3.x Risc PCs that I need to clean-up and pass on, and
buying OS4 for all of them is simply not viable.
In message <c6c0b2704e.druck@druck.freeuk.net> druck <news@druck.freeuk.com> wrote:
Quote:
On 4 Oct 2006 Kris Adcock <news@danceswithferrets.ork> wrote:
Quote:
Is there some sort of black art to fitting CD-ROM drives to Risc PCs? Sometimes I can fit a CD-ROM drive and it works straight away, and other times (like now, for instance) I can spend all day trying different combinations of CD-ROM drive and get nowhere. I have a StrongARM RiscPC with RISC OS 3.7
The CDROM drivers in 3.7 are ancient and may not work with modern high speed drives. You will have much more sucess if you upgrade to RISC OS 4.x which has later drivers.
Or see my experiences reported last week. I discovered that my collection of two Samsung drives and one from LG all work on their own with RO3.7, but won't work when sharing an IDE cable with Maxtor disc drives. Seagate and Connor drives work with these CDs. The error is as you report, rather than "Drive is empty" which is the result of having an unreadable CD, for example a rewritable CD in an old drive. So what make disc are you using?
Following your advice, I tried an alternative drive (the original was a
1.6GB Fujitsu, and I changed it for a Seagate). Now when I click on the
CD-ROM icon the drive spins up and then reports that the CD is faulty.
Which seems to suggest (as you say) that depending on the HD connected
depends on how likely you are to get CD-ROM support!
So I'll keep trying different CD-ROM drives with different old HDs ... Heh.
Could this be what the small "buffer" card I mentioned before is for? To
better insulate the CD-ROM drive from problematic HDs?
(I'll photograph one if people don't know what I mean - I have a fair
few knocking about my office.)
On a related note: a lot of Risc PCs I'm being given from people (and schools) have some sort of buffer board fitted between motherboard and CD drive. They're always stuck to the tray underneath the floppy drive. What are these for? Are they to beat limitations in early forms of RISC OS, for older Risc PC motherboards, or are they for pre-ATAPI drives?
Thanks to all those who have replied (both privately and on usenet).
No-one has mentioned the boards - does anyone know what they were for?
They seem to occur most often with Cumana-badged drives.
On a related note: a lot of Risc PCs I'm being given from people (and schools) have some sort of buffer board fitted between motherboard and CD drive. They're always stuck to the tray underneath the floppy drive. What are these for? Are they to beat limitations in early forms of RISC OS, for older Risc PC motherboards, or are they for pre-ATAPI drives?
Thanks to all those who have replied (both privately and on usenet). No-one has mentioned the boards - does anyone know what they were for? They seem to occur most often with Cumana-badged drives.
They are Panasonic/MKE interfaces.
Throw them away unless you're using the very old Panasonic drives (look
at the jumpers on the rear - drive1,2 etc). Connect ATAPI drives to the
MB IDE connector.
In article <45260744$0$24495$ed2e19e4@ptn-nntp-reader04.plus.net>,
Kris Adcock <news@danceswithferrets.ork> wrote:
Quote:
Kris Adcock wrote:
Quote:
On a related note: a lot of Risc PCs I'm being given from people (and schools) have some sort of buffer board fitted between motherboard and CD drive. They're always stuck to the tray underneath the floppy drive. What are these for? Are they to beat limitations in early forms of RISC OS, for older Risc PC motherboards, or are they for pre-ATAPI drives?
Thanks to all those who have replied (both privately and on usenet). No-one has mentioned the boards - does anyone know what they were for? They seem to occur most often with Cumana-badged drives.
I have a distant memory of old Cumana CD drives having a buffer board-
where these known as slcd? Presumably to allow the use of CD drives in
pre-Atapi Acorn days. ISTR to remember they were generally on Panasonic
drives. All a long time ago.
In article <452606dc$0$24495$ed2e19e4@ptn-nntp-reader04.plus.net>,
Kris Adcock <news@danceswithferrets.ork> wrote:
Quote:
Following your advice, I tried an alternative drive (the original was a 1.6GB Fujitsu, and I changed it for a Seagate).
A few years ago whilst waiting for a replacement SCSI CD drive, I borrowed
an IDE one and found that that only worked with my 1.2GB Fujitsu disk
drive if I set the CD to master and the disk drive to slave - it seemed to
work OK for the week or so I had to wait for the new SCSI CD drive.
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The Joy of fitting CD-ROM drives
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