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Question: I am experiencing problems writing disks using
Easy CD Creator. Are there any known problems?
Answer: Unfortunately there seem to be write and finalizing
problems with the ADAPTEC software package "Easy CD Creator" on
some installations. The software, which was temporarily bundled
with the PLAMON CDR480 was thoroughly tested and caused no problems
on installations in our engineering laboratories. We suspect that
on the few problematic customer installations, conflicts with existing
software or hardware drivers are to blame. A radical solution that
has so far been successful is the removal of all non-essential hardware
components (network card, sound card etc) and the re-installation
of the operating system. A new installation of Easy CD Creator should
then work fine. After this, all previously removed HW components
and removed software may be re-installed one by one. If the problem
re-occcurs after one of the HW components or software is re-installed,
the cause of the problem may be the settings of that particular
component.
However, before using this radical solution, remove and reinstall
your SCSI Host Adapter and drivers. The new installation should
overwrite the SCSI drivers used by Easy CD Creator and may fix the
problem.
Question: Do I need a software reader driver to use the
CDR480 as a CD-ROM?
Answer: The CDR480 reports as a Type 5 SCSI device. Under
Windows 95 and Windows NT4 it requires no extra reader driver. On
Windows for Workgroups, the supplied ASPI drivers will support the
drive. However, on a Macintosh a reader driver is required.
Question:How does the CDR480 show on my SCSI bus?
Answer: The SCSI answer back of the drive is Matshita CW7502.
Question:What if a firmware upgrade becomes available?
Answer: Unlike many other drive's, the CDR480 firmware is
flash upgradable, initially shipping on v1.0. Updates will be available
on the Plasmon BBS and website, and can easily performed on your
home PC. After an upgrade has been performed Windows 95 will see
the CDR as a new device. If you had Auto Insert Notification set
to off, this will need to be re-disabled.
Question:How big is the drives buffer?
Answer: The drive has a 1mb internal buffer (this is non
upgradable).
Question: What performance will my CDR480 give me?
Answer: Continuous sustained read speed is 8x (1.2MB/sec),
Maximum write speed is 4x (600k/sec).
Question:Which modes can I record at?
Answer: CDR480 is capable of all popular modes of CD recording:
Mode 1 / Mode 2 (Yellow Book), CD-ROM XA (Yellow Book Extensions),
Audio (Red Book), CD-I (Green Book), and is UDF compliant.
Question:Which software will work on my CDR480?
Answer: CDR480 has been successfully tested using Easy CD
Creator from Adaptec, Easy-CD Pro 95 from Adaptec, Gear v4.2 from
Elektroson, and Gear Replicator from Elektroson. From the end of
August, Smart Storage will also support the drive with their mastering
Software - SmartCD for CDR480. Plasmon Technical Support will provide
support for SmartCD for CDR480.
Question:Will the CDR480 write to UDF (Universal Disc Format)?
Answer: CDR480 is capable of Incremental Packet Writing /
UDF with DirectCD from Adaptec. For details of obtaining DirectCD
for CDR480, End Users must contact Adaptec. From the end of August,
Smart Storage will also support the drive with their packet writing
software FloppyCD. Plasmon Technical Support will provide support
for FloppyCD.
Question:Does the CDR480 suffer from the limitation of 99
calibrations per CD like other CDR's?
Answer: No! The drive tracks media usage by recording the
serial number, temperature and write speed used so it can determine
if a calibration is necessary.
Question:Which SCSI card should I use?
Answer: The CDR480 has been successfully tested on Adaptec
AHA2940U (firmware level 1.21), AHA2940W (firmware level 1.23S4),
AHA2940UW (firmware level 1.25), AHA2910, AHA1542CF, AHA1542CP and
AHA1535 SCSI adapter cards - using default settings. The CDR480
should work on other adapter cards e.g Symbios, Tekram etc. However,
Plasmon currently only formally supports Adaptec cards and has not
tested the drive on any other card.
Question:The CDR480 has Media Vendor Recognition. What is
this?
Answer: This means it recognises certain brands of media
and calibrates its laser to perform the 'best write possible' to
a pre determined write strategy. Media the CDR480 recognises is
: Plasmon Data, Taiyo Yuden, Kodak and TDK.
Question:What is the best media to use on my CDR480 ?
Answer: The drive will write on ANY CDR media. If the media
is not vendor recognised it is calibrated to the Taiyo Yuden strategy.
However, there is less chance of creating 'coasters' if you use
a media type that is Vendor Recognised. Therefore we would recommend
the use of Plasmon media.
Question:Will the CDR480 use Compact Disc ReWritable (CDRW)
discs?
Answer: The CDR480 cannot read or write to CDRW discs.
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