Demos Locks Up

[DiggerWertz]

I downloaded and installed Hoster and MicroStudio Demos to try out on my new laptop. I knew the internal CD drive was not going to be compatible, so I hooked up my Plextor Premium USB drive, which works perfectly with both programs on my desktop. Both programs lockup when trying to read from this drive and the status in tash manager becomes "not responding". Media player and other programs work fine with the external drive. Is this problem only with the demo and external drives? I need to know before I purchase another copy of both only to find I have the same problem.

[MTUSUPPORT]

No,
The demos are identical to the Full version in the way the drives are accessed.

I would say there is a problem on that laptop with the USB drivers and our ASPI driver.

You might try updating the USB and Chipset drivers for that laptop from the Manufacturers website.

[DiggerWertz]

I discovered that Toshiba has a Legacy Emulation which is turned on by default, si I turned it off. MicroStudio works perfectly..reads, writes, etc, but Hoster still locks up. Since this is NEW machine, not many driver updates are out. I did find a chipset update and installed it, but still have the same problem with hoster. It goes to "not responding" on any disc read. Any ideas?

[MTUSUPPORT]

Hoster uses MMC to read the Discs, where as Microstudio uses older ASPI Technology.

Sometimes, it can be that your drive does not support this newer MMC format, even though it is a brand new drive and computer.

What kind of CDR or DVD drive is it? Please give me the exact model number.

Also what is the Legacy Emulation that you were referring to? I am not aware of this.

[DiggerWertz]

The drive in question is my PlexWriter Premium. After reading your last message, I decided to go to my desktop, which has a Plextor 716A and an internal PlexWriter Premium. Guess what? The 716A works fine, but the internal and external PlexWriter Premiums lockup when Hoster tries to read a disc. I know they worked with hoster 3.03 because I was using both drives to import files. Is this a case where "Progress" means I have to scrap perfectly good drives? The Legacy Emulation you asked about is to make older USB drives work with Toshiba drivers. As I said, it caused MicroStudio to fail, but once turned off, it was fine. Also, I updated the firmware on the Premium drives and that didn't work either. Any ideas?

[MTUSUPPORT]

The Plexwriter Premium is an older drive. The only thing that I have seen to fix some issues such as this with Plextor drives is to upgrade the Firmware. You can get the Firmware for that drive at: http://www.plextor.com/english/suppo...m_Premium.html

It was updated in April 2006.

[DiggerWertz]

As I stated in the previous message, I upgraded the firmware and it still locks up. The Plextor Premiums are less than 2 years old and worked perfectly with Hoster 3.03! So are you telling me I have to replace drives?

[admin]

Something is happening with your drives and/or our software that is out of the ordinary.

I'd suggest you not jump to such drastic assumptions while we are trying to help you diagnose where the problem is.

The more you can tell us, the faster we can try to diagnose what is the cause of your problem. Its now after business hours so we are leaving for the weekend.

If you can do any more tests, poke around in your system related to your drives, try to use other programs to see if they can access your drive, etc., post what you find back here. MTUSUPPORT will be able to use it when he checks back in here.

[DiggerWertz]

Over the weekend I did as you asked and tried every application I have to include: MicroStudio 2.613, Pyro 5, Discjuggler, Media Player, iTunes and many more. All of the applications work perfectly with the Plextor Premium Drive. In an earlier post I said that I had updated the firmware, which I did to 1.07 from Plextor. The Plextor 716A I have works fine with Hoster 3.13, it's just the Premium that hangs up. When I try to add tracks to import, the drive light turns yellow and stops there. When I invoke the task manager and check under applications, it says "Not Responding". After I cancel the application, the yellow light stays on and I can't eject the disc unless I run another application like Media Player, then things are fine. Previous replys from you suggest these drives are old, or the new Hoster uses MMC instead of ASPI technology to read discs, yet the Plextor Premium CDR is on your list of approved drives. I also took the demo and my Plextor Premium USB over to a friends machine and it did the same thing. Once again, things worked fine with Hoster 3.03. I hope this information will help solve the problem.