Member Avatar for caperjack

Hello Guys and Gals .I trying to install a new never used 52x CDRW in a older P166 with 64 megs of Simm ram and a Asus Motherboard ,Problem begins when i put a cd in the Drive ,it sees all files as Audio files .Nero ,doesent see it as a burner ,but Alcohol 120% does but doesent reconsie the blank cd as recordable media .I tried setting DMA mode ,tried it as slave on primary and master on secondary IDE .,no difference . Could it be something to do with the IDE chanel settings .Any ideas

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Practical troubleshooting and expectations for (and a follow-up to ): recognition problems (one app sees the drive, another does not, or blanks are treated oddly) are usually driver/firmware/media issues first, throughput/CPU problems second. The drive can often work on older hardware, but only if the host interface, drivers and media are all compatible.

Try these focused checks first:

  • Confirm the IDE connection and mode: use an 80-conductor IDE cable if you want UDMA/UDMA33, put the optical drive alone as master on a channel, and enable the fastest DMA mode available in the BIOS and in Windows Device Manager. DMA lowers CPU overhead and avoids transfer-related failures (Direct memory access).
  • Fix driver/ASPI conflicts: when one burning app sees a drive and another does not, an ASPI/SCSI/driver mismatch is likely. Remove conflicting packet-writing drivers, reinstall the correct ASPI layer for Win9x, then reinstall the burning software.
  • Handle the media: try a different brand/type of blank disc and erase any RW discs before reuse. Older drive firmware may not recognize newer media IDs — a firmware update (if available from the drive maker) often fixes that.
  • Reduce write speed and use buffer-underrun protection where possible; if DMA is not active, the CPU can’t keep up and burns will fail (Buffer underrun).

A short isolation sequence: 1) move the drive to be sole device on one IDE cable; 2) enable DMA in BIOS and verify in Windows; 3) try a known-good CD-R and a different burning tool. If blanks still aren’t recognized, note the exact drive model and check the manufacturer support page for firmware/media compatibility before replacing hardware.

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Member Avatar for Laser

Just not enough horsepower Jack. I've seen specks on 52x cdr's that want a minimum P3 700!!; The 64MB ram sounds about right but it should be DDR or PC100/133 not 72pin edo.

Member Avatar for caperjack

Just not enough horsepower Jack. I've seen specks on 52x cdr's that want a minimum P3 700!!; The 64MB ram sounds about right but it should be DDR or PC100/133 not 72pin edo.

Yeah ,I figured that was the problem,I just thought it would still work ,just burn at a really low speed .

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