BTC1016UI (MagicSpin 16DDBE) Hanging InfoTool Under Win2K

CD, DVD and (Ultra HD) Blu-ray Writers
#1

I recently bought a 1016 UI (16x external USB DVDRW), and have been having nothing but problems. My initial attempts to burn DVDs with the Nero OEM package kept hanging my Win2K system (actually, only apps trying to access the DVD – InfoTool, Nero, file explorer, device mgr – get hung, and cannot be stopped via Task Manager). While trying to collect data to troubleshoot the problem, I found that even InfoTool hangs, apparently while trying to collect info (e.g., firmware level) from the DVD. Powering the DVD down during the hang will unhang InfoTool, though the drive specific info like firmware level and manufacturer name are missing, i.e., I get the following:

Drive Information

Drive :
Type
Firmware Version
Buffer Size : 0 KB
Date : ?
Serial Number
Vendor Specific :
Drive Letter : I:
Location : 2:0
Modes : n/a

The label on the drive says I am at f/w level A089. And I tried the same drive on my WinXP computer at work, and I was able to burn a DVD, so I guess the hardware must be OK. The drive reads DVDs OK even on the system where I’m having all the write problems.

Any advice on how to get this drive writing on my Win2K box would be much appreciated.

#2

Hi and welcome to CDF,

Please check the Master/Slave setting of the drive and be sure that the drive is set to master. In case that there is an other drive installed on the same IDE channel then it’s no problem when the 1016 is set to slave, just be sure that it is not set to cable select. Also, it’s better when when the drive is not master/slave to a HDD.

Uninstall the drive from device manager and reboot the PC, the drive wil be installed again and this may solve your problems.

#3

Thanks :smiley:

This is an external USB drive, not an IDE. It seems to me that InfoTool must be waiting for some sort of response from the DVD that never arrives. When I look at the hung InfoTool process via Task Manager, there are no CPU cycles nor any new I/O reads, writes, or other occuring. As I mentioned above, however, turning off the drive power will cause InfoTool to wake up.

Do you agree with my analysis? Any other thoughts on where to go from here? Thanks in advance.

#4

ooops, sorry I didn’t read the post that carefully (it’s still early here in Austria).

I guess your PC supports USB 2.0?

#5

Hmm… I was unsure about the 2.0 part when I bought the drive and assumed that all was well since the Win2K autodetected and autoconfigured the DVD OK…

…but looking up the specs on my (old) ASUS P3V4X motherboard convinces me that the USB ports are pre-2.0. I would have thought this would only affect data transfer speeds (i.e., maybe I’d have underrun problems if I actually got as far as burning). I wouldn’t expect total failure for simple stuff like InfoTool.

Nevertheless, I’m definitely outside of the “system requirements” envelope. Guess it’s time to start shopping for a new motherboard :sad: Thanks for your advice.

#6

USB 1 only supports transfer rates up to 12Mbit/s = 1430 kb/s and 1x DVD writing requires 1385 kb/s. As you can see, you won’t be able to burn faster than 1x so it’s a good idea to upgrade the sys :wink:

#7

Or if you dont want to upgrade the system install a USB 2.0 PCI card, it means not needing to replace the system but with ability to add USB 2.0 via the PCI bus. USB 2.0 pci cards cost as little as £10 (20 dollars), just make sure you have a free PCI slot.