123a3013c303
tech



Hello Wayne - 

CA>>> I'm using NERO and getting messages something like
CA>>> "unable to determine power settings" or something like
CA>>> that. Sounds as though the laser isn't powering on/off
CA>>> correctly and the burner is just worn out. It's about 5+
CA>>> years old maybe 8? Anyhow - it's old if you know what I
CA>>> mean. :-) 

WC>> Stupid question, have you cleaned the optics with a
WC>> cleaning disc designed for this purpose? 

CA>> Nope. Never even saw one. There was some discussion about
CA>> cleaning CD burner 'optics' in the W95 echo and, as I
CA>> recall it, the consensus was that the cleaning disk was a
CA>> scam. It would never touch the 'optics' since they don't
CA>> drag on the CD nor would they drag on the surface of a
CA>> 'cleaner' disk. 

WC> Hmm, almost bought one at the convenience store out front
WC> as it had laid on the shelf so long the price was right but
WC> someone snagged it the day before I went in to buy it. 

WC> If the CD cleaner has a raised buffing surface that can
WC> reach the optics and a gentle cleanser I can see it
WC> working, if not, not. 

I"m inclined to believe that only disassembly and careful
cleaning with a proper 'tool' (not a Q-tip) would be of any use
whatsoever. 

WC> I can HEAR my 1.44 drive cleaner diskette's material hit
WC> the heads when I do a dir a: 

Yes, I have one of those disks for 5 1/4 floppy drives and did
use it occasionally with non-residue contact cleaner sprayed
onto the disk inside that envelope. I do think the floppy
mechanism 'drags' the head onto the disk and that cleaner can
wipe the head. I don't think the laser drags across the CD in a
burner but wonders never cease and I could be wrong about that. 

WC>> Not sure if there's an optical output sensor though I know
WC>> these solid state LASER's use a current sensor lead to
WC>> regulate power. 

CA>>> Any recent sales on at Best Buy, Office Max, or Office
CA>>> Depot where I can snag a CDRW cheap? My machine and hard
CA>>> drive are too slow to feed a DVD burner or I'd go that
CA>>> route. :-\ 

WC>> How slow is too slow? My inquiry concerns my H.P. 433
WC>> Celeron I intend to upgrade to a Ultra133 I/O card and
WC>> drive. RAM speed limited to PCI 66 revision 1. 

CA>> Well if my present CDRW burner is having buffer
CA>> 'under-runs' even at 4x I'm assuming my hard drive is not
CA>> capable of keeping up with a DVD burner/buffer? 

WC> You appear to need the same solution as I, a Ultra133 I/O
WC> card and Ultra133 hard drive. For the I/O card Belkins and
WC> SIIG appear to offer what I'm looking for. (
WC> www.compusa.com) 

I think I would be better 'served' by a faster motherboard and
bus and _then_ worry about a faster hard drive. This system is
at 15% the processor speed of newer systems sold today. 

Truth be told after having cable access for
downloading/uploading and now returning to dialup I can see
that either I upgrade all of it or resign myself to less
'ambitious' pursuits. 

I just need to burn reliably for making image file backups and
I'm losing confidence in this CDRW burner as it ages badly? 

WC> I finally got around to getting a very small 340 Meg hard
WC> drive into the H.P. Pavilion. 

Wish I could help out but the cost of shipping some of the
smaller drives I have here would excede their value. If I could
plan ahead (not something I'm good at lately) I might be able
to have my daughter take the drives back to Florida with her
and ship them from where she lives (in Florida)? I have a 3 gig
and a 6 gig that it seems I may never use here. 

WC> Next I'll yank the crap software modem - sound card
WC> combination and replace it with the Turtle Beach sound card. 

Turtle Beach is supposed to be a good one though I've not had a
chance to use/hear one. 

WC> After that I'll see about moving it over to where I can get
WC> at it for regular use. 

I had the perfect setup with all three computers setup with
easy access but now that I am back in the 'big city' I am
cramped for space and still trying to figure out how I'm going
to arrange my machines for access. Think it's time to consider
a KVM switch. 

WC> I never really looked into the options for saving settings
WC> from Knoppix to a small DOS or Linux partition and loading
WC> applications from the CD into ramdrive so it'll be a
WC> learning experience. 

As I remember it last time I fiddled with KNOPPIX it is slow
but does work. 

WC> I figure I'll give it a 128 Meg swap file and whatever is
WC> left past the DOS partition to saving my settings for mail,
WC> newsgroups, mail, dialer, ect. 

Sounds like a plan to me. :-) 

WC> Going to be a darned weird machine in any case, 256 Meg of
WC> RAM, 340 Meg of hard drive, DOS 5.0 - Win 3.1 or
WC> interupting the boot to boot from the Knoppix CD to run
WC> Linux. 

WC> Don't know if it'll mess up anything were I to try to
WC> install the dual boot option on a FAT 16 partition but it
WC> worked flawlessly on my former FAT 32 6.4 Gig hard drive. 

WC> The lame RAM test on boot gives me plenty of time to hit
WC> the ESC key and select boot options so I really don't need
WC> dual boot until I get a new drive. 

W31 will execute from MSDOS v7 (I have a mini-W31 automated
install at my tech website as "PEEPHOLE"). If you formatted as
FAT32 and used MSDOS v7 you should be able to just install W31
and not worry about a boot manager - or am I missing something? 

>
>        ,                          ,
>      o/      Charles.Angelich      \o       ,
>       __o/
>     / >          USA, MI           < \   __\__
 

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