Microstudio Madness - problems with Adaptec SCSI 2940UW Pro card

[Larryh]

I'm using the latest version of Microstudio with a SCSI HP 9200e drive. For the life of me, when I'm using the "custom assembly" there's "magic" afoot.

Almost every single time (after I haven't used MS) that I try to rip tracks from a CDG -- the process begins, the fuel guage indicates progress, then it drops off and the track isn't recorded.

I've restarted, rebooted, changed settings, etc. It seems that if I attempt this about a dozen times (can't figure out what "this" is) the tracks eventually "rip" just fine.

This happens time and again and again. It fails, it fails, it works. Once it's working, I can put CDG after CDG into my drive and it continues to work fine -- FOR THAT SESSION.

I have absolutely no idea what combination of rebooting, changing abritrary settings in the software, changing write and read speeds -- eventually helps. But after countless attempts, it eventually works.

Once it's working, it's great. I have no trouble recording blanks once the tracks are ripped. But it's getting incredibly frustrating, attempting the 100 clicks, etc. to get MS to finally rip the CD's without fail.

Interestingly enough, once it's working, I've had success anywhere from 1x speed to 8x.

But this "black magic" has to have some solution. Am I wrong in thinking this should be a more reliable and consistent process?

Larry

[Larryh]

Ended up solving my own problem. (Ain't that the way.)

Turns out I had to change some device settings on my Adaptec 2940UW Pro card -- specifically as they applied to my HP9200e, CD-RW.

Seems Adaptec's defaults were just too much for the HP drive. I had to DISABLE WIDE NEGOTIATION for the HP drive AND drop the transfer rate to 5Mb/s.

MS and my HP9200 seem to do just fine now. (FWIW, I discovered that this wasn't specifically related to MS -- because other software showed the same issues.)

Since I'm not a SCSI wizard, I'm not sure why -- even with the old settings on the SCSI adapter -- repeated "requests" to "rip" a track to my HD -- would eventually succeed, leaving the CD-R drive in a "working state." Once it was in this state it would continue to work until a reboot. After that, I'd have to try and try again until -- for some reason -- it would reach this "working state."

Anyway, if anyone's having similar issues, I post this for what it's worth.

[MTUSUPPORT]

Larryh,
I am glad that you were able to get it up and running. Thank you for posting in here. I now know why you were having problems. Thanks again.

[Larryh]

Bryan,

If you pop by this thread again -- maybe you could give me a SCSI-eye-view of why, when the adapter was set "too fast" that the program would choke and choke but THEN apprarently "take" and be good until the next reboot.

Obviously, it's fixed, but it'd sure be interesting to find out how that worked.

Thanks,

Larry

[admin]

Larry, check out my post at http://mtu.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?threadid=89 (especially point #3) and you will understand... along with your experiences... why we don't like SCSI. This is such a complicated issue, frought with computer-expert demands that IMHO SCSI no longer belongs in the PC computer marketplace. It has merit for the Server market, but not for average joes (or even above average who want a life outside of their computer!). :w

Don't wait for Bryan to answer as you have pointed out SCSI things we are no longer expert in. SCSI has changed greatly (degenerated IMHO) over the past 3 years from when we only shipped SCSI hard drives and CDRs.

[Larryh]

Now I'm ticked that my Adaptec 1940UWPro didn't come with a huge bottle of Advil! I'm dizzy just thinkin' about it!

Thanks.