External DVD Writer

[CleverCat]

Hi - I'm seriously thinking of getting this:

Link to Kalahari.com

My current LiteOn Writer is refusing to eject the tray! Tried uninstalling Driver and rebooting but no go. It got stuck after a decoding error during a burn and although Mum managed to force open with paper clip to retrieve disc it now is well and truly stuck! 

Any 'caveats' for an external usb writer? I don't use my drive much so speed is not a top priority!

Thanks

CC

[4wd]

Don't you have a currently non-used internal IDE DVD writer still in your machine?

You could reconnect it back up - depending on whether it was working or not when it was disconnected - might get you a few more burns before having to expend some money.

[mouser]

Any 'caveats' for an external usb writer?

all the ones i've seen require TWO (2) usb ports to work reliably.

[Ath]

As mouser said, but in other words: Get an external power supply for use with the writer. (Or at least a writer with an external power connector, so you can add the psu later)

[4wd]

Any 'caveats' for an external usb writer?

all the ones i've seen require TWO (2) usb ports to work reliably.

The ones I've seen, (in recent years), quote 1.5A on the drive - that's the output from three (3) USB2.0 ports.

All good external writers come with a PSU, eg. Sony.

[x16wda]

How pretty must it be?  Just pull out an old internal writer and hook it to one of those ubiquitous usb/ide/sata converters.  When the converter's power dongle chokes (anywhere from a day to a year later) yank out the power supply from your old desktop and short the green and black wires together.  My Frankenwriter has served me well. 

[Target]

not sure whether this might be useful or not, but we used to have a machine with a drive that refused to eject - I wrote a small AHK script that looped the unlock and eject commands until it complied

Code

driveget, tmp_, list, cdrom
loop
{
    drive, unlock, %tmp_%
    drive, eject
    sleep, 500
    driveget, tmp1, statusCD
    if tmp1 contains not ready, open
        break
}

note that I jotted this down from memory and YMMV from mine so it might or might not be 100% correct...

[mwb1100]

yank out the power supply from your old desktop and short the green and black wires together.

But now my computer won't boot! 

(seems like a lot of trouble to avoid spending $20 or so on a new internal DVD writer).

[CleverCat]

And first prize goes to................

Target 

Script worked like charm and gave the drive a kick in the proverbial backside!  Now it works without the script 

Still got to test the burning as it all started when a music track got corrupted during a burn - I'll be giving it a good burning workout using a CD RW so as not to waste any more discs.

Will keep u posted! 

[CleverCat]

Don't you have a currently non-used internal IDE DVD writer still in your machine?

You could reconnect it back up - depending on whether it was working or not when it was disconnected - might get you a few more burns before having to expend some money.

Yes but it's Ribbon Cable doesn't reach the IDE connection! Can I replace with something like this? A rounded cable?

[4wd]

You'll have to move the writer closer to the free IDE connector on the existing ribbon cable - depends whether you, (or your mum), can be bothered.

Spacing on IDE cables seems to be pretty standard, so if it doesn't reach both devices with the existing flat ribbon cable, a rounded version won't make any difference.

You only have one IDE port on the motherboard, so both the existing Maxtor HDD and old IDE DVD need to be plugged into the same cable, (as it was previously).

If you want to go this route, grab another picture of the inside as it is now and we'll suggest device positioning to get everything going, (might be time to vacuum it out again anyway ).

[CleverCat]

There have been interesting developments here! After testing it is starting to look like is was the Media Monkey burning engine that was playing up! After an update 

I have burned a disc using Win 7 and WMP and am currently playing it and so far so good - no decoding errors!

You have good recall 4wd - even I forgot those details!  Mum has to dive into case soon to disconnect SATA drive while I install Ubuntu on IDE so will see what we can do then...

Will keep u posted after disc finished playing...

[Target]

There have been interesting developments here! After testing it is starting to look like is was the Media Monkey burning engine that was playing up! After an update 

I have burned a disc using Win 7 and WMP and am currently playing it and so far so good - no decoding errors!

there's probably (?) nothing wrong with your drive

some (most?) disc handling app's have an option to lock the tray when they're doing something (ripping, writing) which is probably where this went wrong.  If the app fails the lock command may not be released and you'll probably have to use the paper clip to release the tray (possibly even after a reboot).

I have had success using another program to unlock the tray when this happens (eg imgburn, or diskcheck, or freac, or ahk...)

[CleverCat]

My local PC shop is interested in your ahk script - can I send them a copy along with the ahk program?

Disc I burned with plain old windows is fine so am going to roll back MM to previous version and test.

[Target]

My local PC shop is interested in your ahk script - can I send them a copy along with the ahk program?

knock yourself out 

hmmm, then again, maybe I should hold out for a lucrative licensing deal

[CleverCat]

They said the script could save them many trips to 'fix' warranty products! 

BTW - it seems Media Monkey's cda burning is fried as mp3 works fine! So if I need to burn a cda for my friends who are still lingering in the 20th Century, I'll just use Windows....

I'll be reporting the Bug....