Endless lead in with new Plextor USB 2.0...help!

[daveman_84]

Hi...I recently bought a Plextor 48/24/48U External USB 2.0 drive. At the time I didn't have a USB 2 cardbus for my laptop so I used it at the maximum, 4x, and it worked fine. Today I got the cardbus, and when using the drive it rips audio fine, but when I try to burn something, I tried at 8x, using both Nero and Feurio, I get endless lead-ins. I'm using Fuji discs. How can I fix this from happening so I can burn like normal?

AMD Athlon 1.5 Ghz
256 MB RAM
Windows XP

Thanks in advance!
Dave

[CDRecorder]

Welcome to CDRLabs, Daveman!

What happens if you burn at 4x when connected to the USB2 PC card?

[daveman_84]

Hi...thanks for replying.

I just tried it at 4x and the exact same problem occurs, can not get past the leadin. And just a P.S. to the last post, when i had it when the regular USB, it burned ok, but it had to invoke burn proof from between 5 times to 20 times or sometimes even more per session -- so the disc turned out fine, but I would hardly call that great performance. I chalked that up to the USB 1.1.

But yeah I can not burn an audio disc at all through USB 2.0, have not tried data, I'm primarily focused on audio.

thanks,
dave

[CDRecorder]

I wonder if your USB drivers are outdated; are there newer versions available to which you could update?

[daveman_84]

Well, the Windows Update site won't let me download any USB 2.0 drivers, even after I uninstalled the third-party USB 2.0 drivers. I figured I would reinstall the third-party ones that came on the cd-rom. Still doesn't work, lead-in still stalls. And I tried a data disc too for the heck of it, that won't write either.

Coaster-city tonight

Any other ideas to get the damn thing working?

Thanks very much
-Dave

[CDRecorder]

Well, you might try updating the firmware. There might be a bug in it causing problems when attached to the USB2 bus that has been fixed in more recent versions. I have also found that firmware updates frequently improve writing quality, so it is probably a good idea to update the firmware anyway.

[daveman_84]

Well I had already upgraded to 1.04. I figure, what the hell, lets try downgrading to 1.03, maybe for some odd reason that will work. When I try i get an error message. Then i figure, screw it, I'll just go back to 1.04...and i get an error message. This is where it gets interesting:

I plug it into the regular USB 1.1 port, and the firmware transfer is smooth and seamless. This makes me wonder if I have a faulty USB 2.0 card. I bought it off eBay for about 30 dollars, not the finest quality, but I didn't want to spend a whole lot. Perhaps I'll see if I can return that and splurge on an Adaptec. Do I make any sense? Hehe, newbie.

Thanks for all the help LiteOnGuy,
Dave

[dodecahedron]

Well I had already upgraded to 1.04. I figure, what the hell, lets try downgrading to 1.03, maybe for some odd reason that will work. When I try i get an error message. Then i figure, screw it, I'll just go back to 1.04...

just to clarify:
did you manage to downgrade the firmware?
(i didn't know this was possible with plextor drives...)

[daveman_84]

Yes, when it's connected to the USB 1.1 port it can downgrade and upgrade firmware as it pleases. When connected to the USB 2.0 port, it can't seem to do either without errors.

Which makes me wonder if the USB 2 cardbus is faulty.

Thanks!
Dave

[CDRecorder]

Yes, it does sound like something is wrong with your USB2 card.

[daveman_84]

Yeah, I guess this is what I deserve for buying one off eBay. I think I'll pay a visit to CompUSA tomorrow and see what I can get there.

I'll try a new one out and post what happens.

Thanks for the help!
David

[CDRecorder]

I don't think that you "deserve" anything bad for buying it off eBay. I hope your new card helps!

[daveman_84]

I just tried a good quality SIIG USB 2.0 card, just bought from CompUSA.

Same exact thing happens, stalls at lead in, cant even burn a track. I'm at wits end, I don't know what to do. Plextor told me to try Easy CD Creator that was bundled with it -- yeah thats what I want to do, install that piece of junk on XP and ruin my Nero while I'm at it...I told them that if the drive is working right it should work with Nero, so something obviously is wrong.

Any other ideas are very welcome.

Thanks,
Dave

[cfitz]

If you want to try different burning software just to verify that Nero isn't at fault, but don't want to install Roxio's software, then consider installing the freeware burnatonce:

http://www.burnatonce.com/

Also, now that you have a presumably good USB 2.0 card, have you tried burning at 48x?

cfitz

[daveman_84]

I downloaded Burnatonce and I cannot get that to recognize the external drive....I also tried it at 48x with Feurio and the same thing happens.

I have a better grip now on *what* is going on. Basically it starts writing the leadin, then the recorder buffer stays at either zero or tiny...obviously it has nothing to write. That is also why my light is green all the time, because "Burn-proof" is working. My drive is waiting and waiting for the data that simply will not come. It may be the drive, it won't even work with the top of the line Adaptec USB cardbus. The CompUSA techie was stumped, the Plextor tech support didn't really know, and I'll call Adaptec tomorrow to see what they have to say.

The CompUSA guy did have a great idea: find a friend who has a USB CD RW drive and hook it up...if it works it's obviously my burner thats messed up. I don't know any friends with them, so I thought of the next best thing: take it over to my friends house and hook it up to his laptop along with my USB 2 card, if it works on his laptop, the drive isnt broken, if it doesnt work on his laptop, its not necesarily broken, for his laptop may act up like mine, but it increases the odds that it is broken.

Talk about strange. It's like some higher power doesn't want this thing to work..."seems" like the drive works, the computer works, the USB cardbus works, but some intangible thing is preventing it from working together. What a nightmare.

I'll keep posting updates, because this is really wierd and interesting.

Thanks all!

[KCK]

Among the possible culprits, you have not listed your Cardbus controller:

http://home.insightbb.com/~scottlandon/

http://delltalk.us.dell.com/supportforu ... ge.id=2855

Even if you don't have an O2Micro controller, you should check the website of your notebook's manufacturer/vendor to see if there are known issues with Cardbus support for your notebook, and consult other notebook forums for users' experiences.

[daveman_84]

Yes, I do have an 02 Micro Controller...and that site explains exactly what my problem is. Thank you VERY MUCH for giving me the link to it. My initial workings with the patch is that it is NOT working...but I'm still working on it and making sure I've done it correctly. At least now I know I'm not the only one.

Thanks!!!!!

[KCK]

You are welcome! The Dell Talk forum is one of the reasons why I stick to Dell for my notebooks.

[daveman_84]

Done deal!!

The patch for the Plextor didn't work, so I decided to screw USB 2.0 all together. I returned the Plextor for a TDK Firewire CD-RW drive, and I exchanged the USB 2.0 cardbus for a firewire cardbus. Low and behold, firewire works!!!

What a mess, but solved now, thank you FIREWIRE!

And thanks to all who helped!

- a very satisfied me

[KCK]

Good choice! I'm very satisfied with FireWire on my notebooks. Well, you could have also put Plextor in an external FireWire case, but that's another story...