[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: << Has anyone used the IDE bus to add a CD burner to a C600, my son is yacking that he wants a burner and the SCSI types are just a tad on the pricey side, checking around some IDE CDRW's claim to have Mac G4 support (just a scan down the isles at Frys) 24 /6 / 10 cdrw @ $ 60 may be worth it if she could play in a C600 ? Another question is what had been used on the IDE bus besides a hard drive ? >>
I can speak from experience that the c600's IDE connector *DOES* support ATAPI CD drives. I've been fooling with my old c600 (which sat unused on the floor for 2+ years), seeing what I could do with it. One of the things I tried was swapping out the factory-installed Toshiba SCSI CD for a faster unit. It currently has a Lite-On 40x ATAPI CD-ROM in it. I simply disconnected the IDE connecting cable from the internal IDE drive, and plugged it into the CD. I stuck an old ProMax "TurboMax" card into one of the PCI slots, and plugged the IDE drive into it. I don't believe the IDE implementation on the c-series clones supports "master & slave", so I needed an alternative method to connect the hard drive (if master/slave *IS* supported, I'd like to know?). The newly-installed ATAPI CD-ROM "shows right up" as an "ATAPI CD-ROM" in the control strip module that plays audio CD's. All you need to run it is the standard Apple CD driver extension. I doubt that using CD-ROM Toolkit will even work with this kind of hookup. I have not personally tried running a CD-RW through the c600's IDE connector, although I can see no reason why it would not be supported. I doubt that you'll be able to boot from it, however - I don't seem to be able to boot from the Lite-On drive currently installed. The "bootability" of ATAPI CD's seems to be peculiar to the individual ROMs installed on individual units. There are a number of OTHER issues you must be aware of, however: ISSUE #1: if you hook up the ATAPI CD-RW burner, you will need some alternative for connecting the IDE hard drive. Again, to my knowledge, you can hook up only *ONE* device to the c600's IDE connector. So -- if you want to keep using the IDE drive, you will need an ATA/PCI card solution. A relatively inexpensive one is the VST Ultratek ($49 from OWC). I can't speak as to how well this particular card will work within the c600's architecture. Audio and video "stuttering" during Quicktime playback may - or may not - be a problem. I have not done any real testing to see if my c600 is suffering from the "stuttering problem" using the old, original TurboMax ATA/33 card. ISSUE #2: If you *DO* put in an ATA/PCI card to hook your IDE hard drive to, you will need to REINITIALIZE IT in order to get it to work. You can't just unhook the drive from the IDE connector, plug it into the ATA/PCI card, and reboot. ATA/PCI cards are "seen" by the Mac as SCSI connections, and the drive will not mount until you reinitialize it with Drive Setup, which installs SCSI-based disk drivers which supersede the IDE drivers that are presently on the drive. Bear in mind that you must have some way to back up what programs and data you have on the drive BEFORE you do this -- or they will be lost. ISSUE #3: You *MAY* not be able to get Toast Titanium (version 5) to burn successfully with the drive. I'm not sure about this -- I have experienced lock-ups trying to get Toast Titanium to burn CD's using an ATAPI CD-RW connected to an ATA/PCI card on my s900 (but that's an ATAPI/ATA/PCI connection, as distinguished from a "direct connection" to the computer's internal IDE connector). At some point, the attempted burn will just freeze, requiring a forced restart. However, if I run my older version of Toast 4.1.3, and the same CD will burn beautifully, although at a slightly slower speed. As far as I can tell, this is a "driver conflict" between Toast 5 and an ATAPI device connected via an ATA/PCI card. If you decide to proceed with the CD-RW and an internal connection, I would advise you NOT to buy Toast Titanium outright (see further advisory below). It is possible to pick up an "OEM" version of Toast "Standard" version 4 (originally packaged for Yamaha drives) from "buycheapsoftware.com" for $16. I know that OWC is currently offering a Phillips CD-RW drive (ATAPI internal) bundled with a copy of "Toast Lite" version 5, for about $115. You could drop this in, and if Toast Lite burns without problems, you can either buy the "full" version outright, or perhaps upgrade through Roxio's site (I hear they offer a decent upgrade option). Check this link: <http://eshop.macsales.com/Catalog_Item.cfm?ID=4326&Item=OWCPH1621809EP> Those are pretty much the relevant issues if you want to try this. Best to be forewarned. If they look to be either too formidable or too pricey, your other options would be: 1. Spend the extra $$ and get a good SCSI-based burner -or- 2. Buy a Firewire PCI card and a Firewire burner (but then again, there could be "FireWire issues" that need resolving vis-a-vis the c600, AND, you definitely WILL NOT be able to boot from a Firewire device on the c600). Far and away the easiest solution is buy an SCSI burner. <G> - John -- SuperMacs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | Service & Replacement Parts [EMAIL PROTECTED] | & CDRWs on Sale! | PowerON Computer Services <http://www.poweron.com> REPLACEMENT PARTS in STOCK Drives, CD-ROMs, RAM, Processors, Power Supply <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> SuperMacs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/supermacs/list.shtml> Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/supermacs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
