🚀 go-pugleaf

Mouse Magic <mrdesign@cynergy.com.au> wrote:

>Does anyone have a PHILIPS CDD2000 CD-ROM writer/recorder ? I am trying
>to put together a FAQ on this drive and it's associtated software so I
>can post it for all to use. Your help will be greatly appreciated.

Sure! I just finished <groan> installing one here.

>I am interested to know the following:
>
>1. SCSI Adapter card (what type / brand etc)

This one came with an AHA-1535A adaptec card, two drive scsi cable and
a short folded sheet of instructions. This was an internal drive but
the card has internal and external connectors.

>2. Hard Disk Drive used when burning CD's (what type / brand / size    /
>specs / etc)

Caviar 1.6 gig and 2.5 gig, partitioned in 2 drives each and run block
mode. The philips drive would NOT function when hard drives were
formatted with @disk mangler.

>3. CD-ROM writer/recorder software (what type / brand / version)

The drive came packaged with Corel CD Creator (on a CD) which seems to
be adequate for beginners like me. Since I haven't seen anything else,
I don't know what might be better. See #5 below.

>4. Operating system (what type / brand / version)

I started out trying to install this drive in what philips recommended
as compatible - a 486/66 with 8 megs of memory and a 1.6 gig drive
under windows for workgroups. By the time I had a machine that the
drive would function in, this turned into a 586-120 (cyrix) on a vip
motherboard with 16 megs ram and a 1.6 and 2.5 gig caviar. 

Oh ya...  I saved the floppy drives and the video card.

>5. Are you or have you had problems ?

I started trying to install the drive in what philips said was a
compatible machine. Installation of the scsi drivers under dos went
flawlessly (although the installation deleted my other CD drivers from
the autoexec and configs) but then installation of the corel cd
creator software under win/3x from the enclosed cd started the real
nightmares.

The drive worked as a cd reader under dos. Under windows, the drive
was recognised but refused to read data. Returning to dos got me a
$600 cd reader again. E-mail was sent. Trying to get tech support from
the toll free tech support number in the manual returned a recorded
message to call a toll number in california. Be advised that the
average wait I got for maybe 8-10 calls total is over an hour
listening to a short blurb on how much they care about your problems.
I only got a real human being twice. The first one asked me to fax a
copy of my autoexec.bat and config.sys files and he'd call me back. Uh
huh...

The next day, I called them back, went through the same wait again,
got a female voice who was unable to offer any sugestions at all
except that I should maybe get a different hard drive controler. She
also said they couldn't find my fax with the autoexec.bat and
config.sys files and would I "please fax them again and they'll call
me back."

Day 3: I call again. After an hour on hold, I pick up the other phone
line and call the toll free number again, asking for switchboard.
After explaining the problem with the phone, I am told that she'll
have someone call me "but they're very busy". Uh huh...

Day 4: Still no returned calls. They have my e-mail, my fax number, my
voice number and even my mailing address, along with 2 faxed copies of
those startup files. I turn to the web for help (something I should've
looked at before buying a philips product) and discover that philips
also owns the tragic "paradise bahamas" video card scam. The web page
they leave online for frustrated owners of those little gems is filled
with public messages either begging for help or suggesting
anatomically impossible contortions for the designers. You see these
cards at swap meets and back alleys. Buying one is a lesson in life,
and buying two is stupid. oh! back to the cd drive. <sigh>

Simply put, the cdd-2000 drive I purchased was NOT compatible with
this generic 486/66 clone.  A quick drive to a local parts outlet and
$300 later, I had all of the proof I needed. I plopped together a new
machine with more memory, faster cpu and a spiffier looking midi tower
(CD -R's are fanatical on appearance I discovered) and the drive
installed and functioned quite well for the first CD.

For the second CD recorded, there developed a hitch....

I was recording CD's from a D drive dedicated to hold the files for
each CD plus about 100 megs for a working buffer. The CD Creator
software runs from the C drive. While setting up the CD's a little
blurb in the bottom suggests how much empty space will be needed on
the hard drive during the creation process - typically about 6-8 megs.
I discovered after making two $10 coasters that the ACTUAL space
needed is more like 50-100 megs. If it isn't there, you write the
entire CD and then the software bombs out when it's time to write the
index at the last step. The drive locks up and you get a "This is not
a writable disk. Please insert a writabel disk and CD Creator will
attempt to write the directory" message on screen. The drive is also
locked solid at this point and won't even open again till a power off
reboot of the system.

Having lots and lots of empty disc space eliminates this.

I've made 2 more satisfactory CD's since I got the space problem
figured out. Both ran fine. Both were on green disks. I'm going to go
get a gold disk (one) and see how this drive does with that. 

On an aside, this drive claims to be a 2x write, 4x read drive. I have
a number of 2 speed drives in other machines that could read rings
around this one. Of course, they don't write... but I haven't tried
pumping $1000 of additional agravations into them yet.

Maybe later.....
** Cats have 5 bones in their entire bodies. The skull is
just for bumping with and the other four, called feet, are 
used for bouncing on the bellies of unsuspecting sleepers.