Plextools Crash / Freeze Problem (2.09/2.10)

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

I’ve been using Plextools for the last 15 months or so and have not been able to get Plextools 2.09 or 2.10 to work at all.

I have read similar posts on this message board but there is never a clear resolution. WHAT MAKES THIS PROBLEM SO STRANGE IS PLEXTOOLS 2.08 AND LOWER WORK FINE. I believe the problem has something to do with new features found in 2.09 or higher, probably related to the new DVD functions.

Both 2.09 and 2.10 behave the same. After I install them and reboot when it tries to load in the system tray it freezes the computer up. Rebooting into safe mode and disabling it from starting up allows me to boot the computer up, but as soon as I load Plextools it crashes. I have tried clearing the registry, deleting the Plextor directory and reinstalling from scratch, but it doesn’t help.

I am running Windows 2000 with service pack 4. My plextor drive is a 48/24/48A model with the 1.05 firmware.

I also have a Pioneer DVD-R DVR-A05 drive and a Pioneer DVD-ROM DVD-115 drive. All three of the optical disc drives are on the motherboard IDE controllers of my Athlon Nforce2 A7N8x-Deluxe motherboard. I am using the regular Windows 2000 Microsoft IDE drivers. The drives are all in Ultra DMA mode.

I also have a Promise Ultra133TX2 controller that I use with two hard drives. I have the latest BIOS and drivers installed for that controller.

I am not running any software on startup that does anything special with the drives (no Alcohol or other ripping related software).

I believe the problem is either a conflict with the other optical drives or possibly with the controller. The 2.09 change log does indicate “Support for adapters with multiple busses” and I wonder if that isn’t something that is causing it to hang?

Any recommendations or suggestions? For the time being I am running Plextools 2.08 but I would like to update at some point.

#2

Originally posted by agentk7
[B]I’ve been using Plextools for the last 15 months or so and have not been able to get Plextools 2.09 or 2.10 to work at all.

Both 2.09 and 2.10 behave the same. After I install them and reboot when it tries to load in the system tray it freezes the computer up. Rebooting into safe mode and disabling it from starting up allows me to boot the computer up, but as soon as I load Plextools it crashes. I have tried clearing the registry, deleting the Plextor directory and reinstalling from scratch, but it doesn’t help.

I am running Windows 2000 with service pack 4. My plextor drive is a 48/24/48A model with the 1.05 firmware.

[/B]

Same problem to me. 2.08 work fine, 2.09 freeze computer in Win2k SP4 and now I cant install 2.10 because the file “Plextools Professional v2.8.msi” is missing. I done exactly what you done.

Any suggestion around?

Oler.

#3

Hey Oler,

I found a file “Plextools Professional v2.08.msi” in C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Temp_is16. (the directory name “_is16” seems to be a variable name. I also have similar files for 2.09 and 2.10 in directories named “_is18”, “_is48” etc.)

This seems to just be a temp setup file (just under 5 megs in size). You might try deleting out the contents of your whole Temp folder and trying a reinstall. This may at least help you with getting 2.08 reinstalled.

Since you have a similar problem as me, do you have any similar system specs? (motherboard, etc). Are you running other optical drives or additional drive controllers?

The more I think about it, the more I think the addition in the 2.09 changelog of “Support for adapters with multiple busses” means that 2.09 and therefore 2.10 are more prone to hang because it might be doing additional system checks for this type of setup (?).

At least I know I’m not the only one having this problem…

#4

Have you tried contacting Plextor and asked them for a reaction? If you want I can make this thread sticky and ask more people to report their problems. Maybe we can then finally squash those bugs. I’m personally running PlexTools v2.10 and have also installed an extra IDE controller (which has two optical drives attached to it and one hard disk). I never experienced problems so far… My IDE controller is identified as a CMD PCI-0649 Ultra DMA IDE-controller.

#5

I am running Plextools v2.10 (ran v2.09 before 2.10 was released) with WinXP and a 48/24/48A, v1.05. I have had no problems with Plextools v2.10. Maybe your problem is related to Win2k?

#6

Originally posted by agentk7

[B]I found a file “Plextools Professional v2.08.msi” in C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Temp_is16.

Since you have a similar problem as me, do you have any similar system specs? (motherboard, etc). Are you running other optical drives or additional drive controllers?

[/B]

Hi,

I knew was there, unfortunately I haven’t the *.msi file in my Temp directory… maybe I deleted it some month ago, but why an old temp file must be left there?. Anyway Plextools 2.08 still working and I wrote to Plextor Europe to have some assist for my DVD Writer and in meantime asked what can be the Plextools 2.09 2.10 install and crash problem. I’m waiting answer.

Here my system:
Motherboard Asus
SCSI Adaptec Ultra 19160
CPU Pentium 4 - 3.06 Mhz
HD IBM 10,000 rpm SCSI
HD Maxtor 7,200 rpm
Plextor 40/12/40 SCSI
Plextor PX 708UF (8x DVD+R speed on USB 2.0)
SB Creative Live
Matrox Video Card

… and someother peripheral like Scanner HP, VideoCam wireless Logitech, keyboard and mouse optical wireless Logitech and so on. All working properly.

I’ve no idea what could be the 2.09 and 2.10 crashes. For sure is Plextor software BIG BUG. At least for us “w2k professional” users. :wink:

See ya. ( Never had failure in 1985 and later with DOS 2.0 to 5.0:-D)

#7

Originally posted by G@M3FR3@K
Have you tried contacting Plextor and asked them for a reaction? If you want I can make this thread sticky and ask more people to report their problems. Maybe we can then finally squash those bugs. I’m personally running PlexTools v2.10 and have also installed an extra IDE controller (which has two optical drives attached to it and one hard disk). I never experienced problems so far… My IDE controller is identified as a CMD PCI-0649 Ultra DMA IDE-controller.

I haven’t inquired about official support for Plextools because it didn’t actually come with my Plextor drive :slight_smile:

Like 420freak indicated on the thread I’m wondering if it is some sort of quirk specific to Win2K. I’m sure Plextor does some testing on Win2k but probably do far more extensive testing on XP.

Oler, I don’t get the *.msi file error when I install 2.10, I just basically get the same result as I do with 2.09 which is freezes. I might try uninstalling Plextools again tomorrow and wipe out my temp directory and see if that has any effect…

#8

I was doing some testing tonight and trying to verify things, and found something interesting on my setup; using the Nforce 2, 3.13 Drivers and Plextools 2.10 when I open plextools the premium is there as a premium but I do not have any of the premium functions, no giga-rec, vari-rec or secur-rec, not even the hide cdr-media can be used it’s greyed out. I would like others to check their system and please list there current nforce drivers and plextools version. I am using XP Pro. I got a quick response from Plextor and here it is:

The nvidia ide drivers don’t work properly. You’ll need to install the Microsoft eide controller drivers instead.

http://www.plextor.com/english/support/faqs/PTP00007.htm

In Device Manager, select your Hard Disk controller, then the Driver tab, then the Update Driver button.

Select a list of All drivers, then Standard hard disk drivers, then Standard Bus Mastering IDE hard disk controller or the Standard Dual PCI EIDE Controller.

Plextor America Support Team - ****

#9

Originally posted by kamikazee

Select a list of All drivers, then Standard hard disk drivers, then Standard Bus Mastering IDE hard disk controller or the Standard Dual PCI EIDE Controller.

Okay… but I’ve a SCSI HD, so the problems are others.

#10

All of my hard drives are also connected to a scsi device, I just didn’t touch that, but I did like they said and the plextools are functioning fine now, I have my ATAPI device on my ide controllers.

So ok, I email them back with the obvious question, “are you guys working together to fix this?” and here is Plextors answer:

We aren’t working with them at this time. When they manage to update their drivers to properly support the specs, they should be fine.

Plextor America Support Team - ****

if I run the nforce drivers all the tabs at the top except basic and advanced are gone, they just aren’t there, and all the features you see in the main window are greyed out except the three that are ticked now.

#11

Hey Kamikazee,

I think your problem with the nforce drivers is a totally separate issue then the Plextools install problem that started this thread. The IDE drivers for the nforce2 chipset has well documented issues with optical drives. I believe that Plextor’s responses to your inquiry are appropriate.

Nvidia is trying to eek out as much performance with their chipset as possible, but the IDE drivers are still not up to spec for full compatibility. This is why Nvidia provides a warning in the 3.13 nforce chipset drivers before it installs the IDE drivers.

I tried using the latest 3.13 package IDE drivers myself and Plextools didn’t recognize my Plextor drive AT ALL.

I use the nforce2 drivers on my board without the IDE drivers and I just use the Microsoft IDE drivers and I’m fine.

#12

Just something for them to look at, and as far as the nvidia drivers, it is the SW’s that are the problem I can use the NVIDIA Nforce2 IDE Drivers, just not the SW’s.

#13

I wanted to mention that I tried Plextools 2.11 and had the same problem as with 2.09 and 2.10 (described in the first message on this thread).

I did make sure that nothing was in the drive when the computer booted up etc.

I am still able to install and use Plextools 2.08 without any problem whatsoever.

I did notice on the European Plextor site that the Plextools downloads are under construction. Perhaps they are about to release a new version. Maybe that will fix the problem :slight_smile:

#14

Well I tried the new Plextools 2.14 software, without success. SAME EXACT PROBLEM as with 2.09 and 2.10.

This time when I tested, after it froze, I powered off computer. Switched the Plextor drive to be the primary on IDE2 and my Pioneer DVD-R to be the secondary (it was reverse prior to this).

After turning off Plextools from autostarting (WHY DOESN’T PLEXTOR OFFER THE OPTION ON INSTALL OR DEFAULT TO NOT DOING THAT?!?!?!?!?!) I deleted the registry settings found here: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Plextor\PlexTools

Same problem. Uninstalled Plextools 2.14, reinstalled Plextools 2.08. Rebooted. 2.08 still works fine.

I guess I should be lucky that 2.08 works properly…

#15

I get the funny feeling that PlexTools may have a problem working with your Promise IDE controller card.

Have you tried switching your IDE devices around and trying PlexTools 2.14 again? Assuming your hard disks are not in RAID mode, there are a few alternative IDE drive configurations you can experiment with:

  1. Hard disks and Plextor on motherboard IDE, Pioneer drives on Promise controller.
  2. Hard disks and Pioneer drives on motherboard IDE, Plextor on Promise.
  3. Hard disks and Plextor on motherboard IDE, Promise controller and Pioneer drives temporarily removed.

These configs, especially #3, should help determine whether the move recent PlexTool releases have a compatibility problem with your Promise controller.

The only catch is that Window 2000 may give a blue-screen crash during bootup when the OS hard disk is abruptly moved to a different IDE controller. This is known behavior and will require some special registry modifications and driver file copying to be done prior to actually changing IDE controllers. I can provide some pointers should you need them.

Good luck!

#16

Well my main OS hard drive, and all three optical drives are located on the motherboard IDE. The promise controller just handles two additional hard drives I have. I am using all the updated firmware/software for the promise controller.

I think the promise controller is a very good lead but just seems silly that Plextor would break that compatibility (presumably between 2.08 and 2.09).

I will try disabling the Promise controller and see what happens.

Thanks.

#17

Please let us know if that fixes the problem. If so, maybe Plextor can fix this issue.

#18

Well I was adventurous and tried installing the latest version of Plextools on my pc after having all the aforementioned problems…

2.19a works great, no problems so far, tried closing it, reopening it without trouble.

I had last tried version 2.18 back in November and had no luck with it. Not sure if this was finally fixed by Plextor or what.

If I’m feeling really adventurous maybe I’ll go back and see if I uninstall 2.19a and try installing 2.18 to see if the problem comes back. This would help determine if the problem was truly with the Plextools program or some hardware and/or software conflict…