Killer PC?

[Cricket]

Is it possible that my new computer somehow "killed" the 2 TEAC CD-540E CD players I had installed in it? I know it sounds silly, but I'm really beginning to wonder...

I recently built this computer (Win98SE, PIII 1 Gig, EPOX EP-3SPA3L, 256 megs PC133, 20 GB IBM 60GXP, Plextor 16/10/40A, Matrox G200, SB Live Value, USR Performance Pro modem, Antec SX830 case) and it works fine...there are no conflicts in device manager and it runs very stable.

Current drive set up is IBM as master on primary IDE channel and Plextor as master on secondary IDE channel. I'm running the IBM at ATA33 instead of ATA100, so I haven't installed the Intel Ultra Storage Drivers from the EPOX installation CD yet and using a regular 40 wire IDE cable. DMA is enabled for both devices.

The problem started when I installed the TEAC CD-540E. I installed it on the secondary IDE channel as slave to the Plextor (I don't plan to do any on-the-fly CD to CD copying) and enabled DMA. I'm using Nero 5.5.0.3 which comes with CD Speed and when I ran it to get a speed reading on the TEAC, my PC froze up with the HDD and TEAC spinning merrily away. I couldn't Ctrl, Alt, Del to End Task so had to use the reset button. To rule out the software, I tried using Exact Audio Copy to extract audio to the HDD and the PC froze again. Then I tried using Nero to extract audio and the PC froze yet again.

I removed the TEAC and installed my trusty old Toshiba 32x CD player and was able to extract audio with all three programs, no problem. I also tried the Plextor to extract audio and it worked without any problems.

I RMA'd the first TEAC, but the replacement does the same thing...freezes the PC while doing audio extraction. I can't install programs from CD with it either, it hangs about the 75% complete mark every time.

Funny thing is the first TEAC originally worked fine in my older PC (Win98SE, PII 400, Shuttle Spacewalker 641, 128 megs PC100, 9 GB IBM 22GXP, Toshiba 32x CD, Matrox G100, SB AWE64 Value, USR Sportster 56K modem, Chenbro Value Series case) but after it's little adventure in the newer PC, it won't do audio extraction when I place it back in the old PC.

Both TEAC CD-540E's had the latest firmware updates installed (3.0A).

So, did my new PC "kill" the 2 TEAC CD540E's or did I just happen to get 2 defective TEAC's...by the way, the serial numbers are sequential: 3888504 and 3888505 (coincidence or important clue?). I'm going to RMA the second TEAC, but I'm worried the replacement will experience the same fate as the other 2.

[gerrygrit]

I would try removing the PLEXTOR and using the TEAC alone to see if
you get the same results.Even though the DEVICE MANAGER shows no
conflicts....it doesnt mean that there is no incompatability
between the two drives.

[WJWheels]

Did you happen to install PlexorManager200? That program seemed to lock up not only my cdrom drives but almost my whole computer. After one hell of a time removing it, I'm finally back to operating normally.

[Cricket]

Thanks for responding guys...

gerrygrit: I'm going to try the TEAC one more time without the Plextor like you suggest. I'll post back with the results. The TEAC did work when I had both it and the Plextor installed in my old PC though.

WJWheels: I passed on the Plextor Manager 2000 when I installed the Plextor...I had Nero 5.5 and thought it already had everything I needed.

I did take my first TEAC back to the place I bought it and they tested it out on their bench system for me (I don't know what their system configuration is though). The tech told me he was having the same problems with the TEAC that I was having and they RMA'd it for me.

I guess my real question is this: Is it possible for a CD drive to become damaged by a PC? I'm curious about my using the EPOX 3SPA3L w/i815EP chipset without the Intel Ultra Storage Drivers installed (ATA33 instead of ATA100 on IDE channels). I can't imagine how that could damage a CD drive, but I'm not that knowledgeable about such things.

I think I'm seeing problems where there are none. Since the serial numbers for the TEAC's were sequential, the drives were probably just from a bad batch.

Thanks again,
Cricket

[Carl Price]

Food for thought! The Teac might not be a supported drive for the software if the software predateds the drive by much. You may have to get the latest version, especially of Nero.

[Cricket]

Thanks for responding Carl Price,

Actually, the TEAC CD-540E is just a CD ROM drive...not a CD-R or CD-RW. I've had 2 installed in my new computer and when trying to load programs or extract audio to the HDD, my computer freezes...I can't use Ctrl, Alt, Del to end task, I have to use the reset switch. I can use my old Toshiba 32x CD or the Plextor 16/10/40A without problems, so I think the problem lies with the TEAC and not my computer. I'm just surprised that a brand new CD ROM drive can actually freeze a computer like that.

Originally, I was wondering if something was wrong with my PC setup, but now I'm leaning towards the idea that I just got 2 defective drives in a row since the serial numbers are sequential. I'll be contacting TEAC to have this second drive RMA'd.

Thanks again,
Cricket

[Cricket]

Per gerrygrit's advice, I removed my Plextor CD-RW and installed the TEAC CD drive by itself. I again tried to extract audio tracks from a music CD and the attempt failed with the same results...PC froze.

I then installed the TEAC into my older PC as the only CD drive and tried to extract audio tracks from a music CD. That attempt also failed.

Looks like I'll be contacting TEAC to RMA this drive.

Thanks to all who responded to my thread.

Cricket

[gerrygrit]

I can tell you that I lost an IDE controller,a CD-ROM and a CDRW(all on
that one IDE cont.)at the same time.Dont know which one went bad
first or what caused what to go out...I just know that I cannot use
my secondary IDE controller since the CD-ROM and CDRW went bad.If
I connect anything to it the pc will refuse to boot.The CDRW was under
warranty so it was RMA'd.
Try the (new)TEAC in the old pc first and test it before installing
it in the new one.
Hope that helps a little.

[Cricket]

Hi gerrygrit,

Wow, after reading your post, I checked to see if the secondary channels on both my old and new PC's were still good. Had been moving the TEAC from one to the other to test it. I think everything is okay.

I've been thinking that I should probably keep the replacement TEAC out of my new computer...just in case. I'll be getting a Plextor 12/10/32A soon and will use it along with the TEAC in my old PC to record music CD-R's. Since the combination of Plextor 16/10/40A and TEAC CD-540E worked in that PC before, I'm hopeful the new setup will work too. It's got a 440BX motherboard and is really stable...I love that old computer.

Thanks for all your help and suggestions,
Cricket

[Cricket]

I got the 3rd TEAC CD-540E from TEAC (RMA'd the first 2 drives) and installed it in my old PC (PII 400, BX chipset). The first TEAC I had worked fine in that old PC, but when I tried to extract an audio track, the PC froze up again. This was a much newer drive (manufacture date was months after the first 2) and it already had the updated firmware installed. Was this drive defective also? No, this time it was user error...argh!

I had worked on another PC a week earlier that was giving me problems when I tried to extract audio tracks with it's 40x Toshiba CD drive. I was upgrading it, so a lot of the parts came from the previous build. The CD drive was working fine in the original set up (a PIII 450 on a ABIT BH6) but now in a Athlon 1.2 on a EPOX 8KTA3, it wasn't. It kept freezing up the same way my new PC would...2 different PC's and 2 different CD-ROMs, same problem. I finally got that CD-ROM to work only after I turned off DMA in Device Manager (I remembered reading a forum post at CD-ROM Guide that some recording problems are resolved by turning off DMA). With the DMA turned off, the CD-ROM drive extracted audio tracks like a champ (well, only at 6x, but at least it didn't freeze the PC).

Sooo...after the TEAC froze up my old PC, I went straight into Device Manager, disabled DMA and rebooted...taa daa...the TEAC was now able to extract audio tracks without locking up my PC!

I quickly took the TEAC out of my old PC and installed it in the new one. I used the Intel Ultra ATA Storage Utility to set the transfer mode to PIO-4, rebooted and did an audio extraction. The TEAC worked without locking up the PC...success!

Just out of curiousity, I used the Intel Ultra ATA Storage Utility again to increase the transfer rates upward until the TEAC started to lock up the PC again. I found out the TEAC likes to run at DMA Multi Word 2 mode.

So, it looks like I RMA'd 2 perfectly good drives only because I didn't disable DMA for the TEAC CD-540E. Boy do I feel foolish...but lesson well learned.

Anyone looking for a good CD-ROM drive to use for DAE (digital audio extraction) might want to take a look at the TEAC CD-540E...it can rip a 4 minute audio track to the hard drive in about 17 seconds.

[lovitz]

stop buying Teac drives.

try another brand.

[glc]

lovitz: Uncalled for.