HELP!! Strange problems with computer freezing up from CD-Recordables

[Guest_imported]

I have two problems, very strange problems.

First off, let me tell you about my computer:

Pheonix BIOS, (1992)
Windows 98 SE
192 MB RAM
450MHz
2 Hard disks
Zip drive
Cd-rom
Cd-burner

Well, I bought an ATA/133 controller card and have bothe hard drives installed

On the ATA card:
Primary Master--1st HDD
Secondary Master--2nd HDD

On the IDE interface:
Primary Master--CD-burner
Primary Slave--NONE
Secondary Master--CD-Rom
Secondary Slave--Zip drive

The first problem:
After installing my CD-Burner as the master jumper on the primary IDE channel, I tried to install some program. Well, the program tells me that the installation was not successfull; I didn't follow the "recomended" instructions. The instructions tell me I should use a separate controller...and I did. It is a 40-wire cable, at first I tried using an 80 wire cable, but i didn't work.
But the strange part is that the BIOS recognizes the Cd-Burner when the boot-up screen kicks in: Phillips CDRWXXX
and my Cd-Rom AND Zip drive are also recognized in bios...and even in "MY COMPUTER" they are recognized.
No matter what I do....uninstall, reinstall...ect., the program tells me installation was NOT successful.

Ther second problem:
The cd-burner APPEARS to work fine...I put in audio CDs and I can play music from them, I can put in regular data CDs and install programs, ect. But the problem occurs when I try to put in a blank, unformatted CD-Recordable or Cd-rewritable...as soon as I put one of these type disks in the tray and close it, the computer tries to read from the disk, and then freezes up and won't do anything until I take the disk out. The computer does NOT crash! It just freezes up and won't respond to any mouse clicks (the mouse still moves) UNTIL I remove the disk from the drive, then all the sudden (as if waking up from a dep sleep) the computer hurries up and responds to all the mouse clicks I was doing while it was frozen....strange!

The computer doesn't appear to be "thinking" durring these times, but from my hypothesis, the computer freezes only when I put a Cd-Recordable in the drive, and unfreezes when I take it out!

A coulple of questions:

How can I still play audio Cds when the program setts me the "installation was not successfull"?

And why does the computer freeze when I put a CD-R or CD-RW in...and unfreeze when I take it out?

I tried to disable read-ahead on the drive...un successsfull
I tried to uncheck "auto insert notification"...un successfull.

Please help, has anyone had similar problems w/ CD-REcordable?

 

[gavrc]

Some questions...
What program fails to install?
Does the CD-RW appear with a drive letter in Windows Explorer?
What burning software are you using?
Some thing to try...
I've had issues with Iomega CD-RWs that had to be setup as slave not master. It might help.

Gav
A problem with Windows??? Never...

 

[gporter]

Additionally, go to the manufacturer of the CDRW perhaps they have a flash utility to update the frimware on the CDRW.

 

[Guest_imported]

It is the installation setup program that came with the Phillips Cd-burner. It says to:

Use a flat cable....done.
Use separate controller...done.
Set jumper as master....done.

The drive can read music cds, but the computer freezes up when I place unformatted cd-R/Cd-Rw in drive and unfreezes when I take it out.

Cd mastering software:
Nero 5.1
Easy CD (trial version?)

I can flash the computers bios, or the cd-burner bios?

 

[Badger7]

Since you have the slave free on the 1st IDE here is what I would try ...

Primary 1 = NONE
Primary 2 = CD RW
Secondary 1 = CD ROM
Secondary 2 = Zip

The only reason I'd try that is to insure the BIOS is not being querky on the fact that you are overriding the intended MASTER 0 drive spot. The software for the ATA is going to load after BIOS, and if you get an error of NO MASTER found, then you will know that C: is being forced away from the CD RW.

Honestly ... an ATA compatable motherboard is a lot more inexspensive than you might think.

"the computer freezes up when I place unformatted cd-R/Cd-Rw in drive and unfreezes when I take it out"

The auto start programming for EZ CD C might be conflicting with the SCSI search tool for Nero 5.1. Did you install Nero first then EZ CD Creator?

 

[ceh4702]

Maybe the program is expecting the CD r/w media (Actual Disk) to be formatted and they are not formatted. Are these blank disks or are they already burned disks?

Exactly what types of CD Disks are they?

CD-ROM
CD-R
CD-RW

I could see where you would have one program to format a disk and another to write music to a disk and another to write data files to a disk and maybe another that just checks the disk like a utility program.

I dont own that brand so I can't tell you much. If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[Guest_imported]

Thank Dog you asked!

The cd-burner is able to read from cd-roms, music cds AND pre-burned data/audio cds. I checked this by putting in a burned cd of SimCity, the cd-burner loaded the program.

The cd-burner also plays pre-burned audoi cd...I verified it.

When I place UNFORMATTED Cd-r data/music and Cd-RW data/mucic, the computer freezes up and won't respond until I take the disk out.

I installed Nero AND Easy CD at the same time! So, maybe there is some sort of conflict between the two programs...who knows?

I WILL unistall the two programs and install them one at a time to see if this is the cause of the problem.

of course I'm not at my computer, so it might take a while to give a response ....

Also, you sayed I can flash the bios of the cd firmware...explain this