On Friday 12 April 2002 08:29 am, Paul Fotheringham wrote:
> Hi Phil,
>
> I tried a cheap Cyberdrive CD-RW (CW038D) with a Mandrake 8.1
> box and had absolutely no joy whatsoever. It may not have been
> Linux that was the problem but I'm not convinced. Couldn't get
> a test CD to mount at all never mind doing any burning. Tried
> tweaking the BIOS and disabling DMA but to no avail.
>
> Personally I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole but as I say
> it may have been a motherboard problem (Asus A7M266-D) I just
> didn't have the expertise or the time to nail it down.
Get a Plextor, I've been the junk (Ricoh) route too. The plex has
survived several different hardware configs (p2,then p3/BX chipset,
Tbird/VIA, 3 mobo's, all overclocked) with never a bother, rock solid
performance. Speakin of which, don't be impressed by drives that
claim writing at above 8x. The best media (cdr's) you can get won't
do it very well. Cheap ones ($15/50 spindle) burn reliably at 8x.
Most important tho is not to get a rebagded cd-rw, ie,
manufactured by someone other than the brand it's sold under. Many
are. Checking on the Cyberdrive CD-RW (CW038D), it's only got a 2mb
(fifo) buffer. Most good drives have 4mb, and it's (ie, 4mb ..all)
that's needed. Bottom line is cheap drives will work with linux, ide
or scsi, the question is how well, and how long. If you use it a
lot, the media will become the cost factor.
--
Tom Brinkman Corpus Christi, Texas
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft?
Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
