ACARD 66 and CD-RW/DVD problems |
December, 03, 2002 8:36 AM |
sprocketworks |
Before I go into all the details, first let me ask, has anyone got the ACARD 66 to work consistently with an IDE CD-RW/DVD drive? What machine are you running this on? What OS X are you using? What slot do you have the ACARD in? What HD do you have? What CD do you have? And how do you have them set up on the IDE chain? I have a 9600, XLR8/G4 450, Radeon 7000, 256 Megs of OWC memory (no interleaved) and a ACARD 66 with latest frimware 3.21, XPost 2.2.4, and a WD 80 Gig Cavier drive. The drive is partitioned with the Apple driver into 4 20 gig (well 19+) partitions. After much time spent debugging (I will post that article later - but #1 issue - GET NEW OWC MEMORY - this will cure many random freezing problems) OSX 10.2 runs beautifully on this machine. Boots between 9.2.2 and 10.2 with no problems. But adding a CD-RW/DVD ROM drive has caused all sorts of problems, usually cannot boot into 10.2 or random freezes if I do. And if I add a hacked OS X device support file, downloaded from ww.xlr8yourmac.com) I usually get a Kernel Panic while booting up. This behavior was the same for both the Samsung CD-RW/DVD ROM or the Toshiba SR1202 I own now. Funny, I could use both drives to Install 10.2, but could not reboot into 10.2. In verbose mode, the system would hang on the line "defs/ dev " Now with the CD-RW/DVD out, the system would blow past this line and get the HD drive info. Put the CD-RW/DVD back on, the system hangs on boot up. I have swapped IDE cables, IDE chain configurations, (slave master, master slave, cable select, and put each on a different IDE chain) all with the same result. I have read that this card doesn't support ATAPI devices but the VST does. But I don't have that card and am still wondering has anyone got this set up to work and if so, could you let me know how you did it. Thanks Doug |
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RE: ACARD 66 and CD-RW/DVD problems |
December, 24, 2002 2:48 AM |
marcush |
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I had a Toshiba SD-R1202 CD-RW/DVD drive attached to an Acard ATA/133 that worked perfectly. To be honest the drive did not work at first but I called Acard support and the guy I talked to told me that the drive should work. He then suggested I update the firmware. After that the drive was recognized and worked with no problems. Incidentally, I bought the card as an ATA/100 but the guy I talked to told me that the latest firmware at the time upgraded the card to a 133. They actually use the same chip. Sure enough, 100/133 is stamped on the back of the card. Regarding the Promise chip. I now have a Sonnet ATA/100 card installed. It is also Promise chip based. I can not say that it is any better than my Acard for DVD playback. I switched because the Promise chip allowed me to use iDVD with my Pioneer burner attached to the card. The burner is detected as an ATAPI device rather than a SCSI device so that it now passes the iDVD hardware check. That is the only superiority of the Promise chip based cards over the Acard based IDE cards that I know of. DVD playback works well with both card and I don't have any audio stutter problems with either card. Power Tower Pro 225 Sonnet G4/800 1Gig RAM (interleaved) Sonnet Tempo ATA/100 Macsense 10/100 Ethernet Ratoc Firewire/USB2.0 ATI Radeon Mac Edition 32MB 3dfx Voodoo 5 5500 Pioneer DVR-104, WD 80GB SE (20GB OSX, 1.2GB 9.2.2, 1.2GB 9.1, 1.2GB Classic, 50GB Apps and Data) IBM 120GB 120GXP (DV capture) IBM 60GB 120GXP in OWC FW case, Toshiba SD-R1202 in OWC FW case. The hard disks are attached to channel 1 of the card and the Pioneer drive is set to master and is the only drive on the channel. |
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RE: ACARD 66 and CD-RW/DVD problems |
December, 23, 2002 10:12 AM |
sprocketworks |
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I replaced the ACARD with a VST Ultratek, now everything works well. The VST has a Promise chipset, which after reading many articlles here, seems to be the answer. My machine will freeze up in 9.2.2 if I boot with a CD or DVD inserted in the drive and Toast 5.2 will not seem to burn an audio CD that can be read in a CD player. However Toast 4.1 will burn audio CD's that can be read - go figure. BTW, I have the CD on one channel and the HD on the other. Doug |
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RE: ACARD 66 and CD-RW/DVD problems |
December, 15, 2002 3:09 PM |
mjoecups358 |
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My acard ahard 66 works flawlessly with my teac 40X burner(master on channel 2).... I have a SCSI DVD player... Marty |
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RE: ACARD 66 and CD-RW/DVD problems |
December, 14, 2002 4:00 AM |
sprocketworks |
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Dumped the ACARD 66 and picked up a VST Ultratek 66 on Ebay. Works with no problems now. I put the HD on one channel and the Toshiba 1202 DVD/CD-R on the other. Boots up great into X, writes CD's with Toast. I added the Toshiba writer support filefor X available at www.xlr8yourmac.com and even Disc Burner and I-tunes burn nice now. One problem, the DVD playback in X is choppy and a little out of sync. Works great in 9.2.2. Any suggestions? Doug PS. after reading some more posts, seems the Promise Chipset is the answer, and other's do not work as well. |
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RE: ACARD 66 and CD-RW/DVD problems |
December, 04, 2002 4:52 AM |
chibi_delenn |
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I have a Sonnet Tempo ATA/66, and I use a DVD-ROM drive myself. Here's my setup: Power Macintosh 8500 (Rev B) 512 MB RAM (Interleaved) MacAlly 2-Port USB Card Radeon (R7200) PCI DDR 32 MB Sonnet Tempo ATA/66 PCI IDE Card (Firmware 3.21) Two 40 GB Seagate HDs (IDE Bus 1) Pioneer DVD-106S IDE DVD-ROM (IDE Bus 2, Master setting) My DVD drive works wonderfully in OS 9.x. I have no problems with it whatsoever. I use the Apple CD/DVD Extension and the (older) AppleCD Player (not the Apple CD Audio Player that is installed standard), and I get all the functions I need. DVDs play in OS 9 using the patched DVD Player 2.7, or in OS X using DVD Player (have to do the "mount a .dmg with toast first trick). The only thing that doesn't work right is audio cds in os x. They simply aren't recognized for some reason, likely a problem with the IDE/SCSI bridge chip on the ATA/66 card. Note: My ATA/66 card DOES NOT like having a HD on the same bus as the DVD. I get data corruption galore if that happens. But with the size of IDE HDs getting bigger and cheaper, using 2 HDs instead of 3 (which I can do in my 8500) isn't a huge problem. I can boot both Classic OS and Mac OS CDs off my DVD-ROM drive (OS X CDs require XPF). How's that for coolness? :) - Chibi Delennâ„¢ |
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RE: ACARD 66 and CD-RW/DVD problems |
December, 03, 2002 2:58 PM |
sprocketworks |
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Thanks. Here is a question and update. Frist, can you get your drive to write CD-Rs? What drive are you using? 2. Here is an update. I pulled the WD80 gig drive and replaced it with a 4 gig quantum firebal st SCSI drive. I put back in the IDE Hitachi CD-R/DVD ROM Drive and and re-installed OS 10.2. on the SCSI drive. Now...no problems. The system boots back and forth from 9.2.2 to 10.2 no problem. Still, I can not write any CD-R's with this drive yet Based on yuor infor and mine, it seems there is some timing conflict and OS X booting up and the ide card. But with some extra SCSI involved, yuor's external and mine booting from a SCSI device, the conflict goes away? Doug |
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RE: ACARD 66 and CD-RW/DVD problems |
December, 03, 2002 1:08 PM |
gchron |
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I have the same problem with Acard 133. I sent a mail to them and told me that my DVD is not supported even that it worked fine with macos 9.x.x and X 10.1.x The have a new driver that actually stopped tyhe prodlem if I do not boot in verbose or single user mode. When I boot in these options I have to turn on my old SCSI apple CD drive connected to the external SCSI. When it is on it does not hang at defs/dev Very strange. |