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Windows ASPI Package
Adaptec has its own downloadable ASPI layer pack.
ASPI
drivers v4.71.2 ASPI v4.71.2 for Win98, NT 4,
ME, 2000 and XP
ASPI
Driver v4.71 for Win98, NT 4, ME, 2000 and
XP. Includes ASPICHK
ASPI drivers v 4.70 For Windows 98, NT 4,
Me, 2000 and XP
W95 ASPI - Use ASPI ver 4.60 found under EZ-SCSI 5.x downloads for Windows 95
ImgBurn 2.5.8.0 Win
9x/Me/NT4/2k/XP/2003/Vista/2008/7/8/10 (plus all
64-bit versions). If you use Wine, it should also
run on Linux and other x86-based Unixes
Note:
Use the 4.71.2 ASPI layer, NOT SPTI
Windows
NT 4.0 and Optical Media
"Some software may attempt to access optical drives
using SPTI (SCSI Pass-Through Interface). This
programming interface was created by Microsoft to allow
direct access to hardware like optical drives.
Unfortunately, the implementation in NT 4.0 is very poor
and unstable. Attempting to access hardware through SPTI
may result in STOP or Dr. Watson errors. If the option
is available, use ASPI access instead."
Burning at 1,800KB/s under NT 4.0
I had tried using a 3.36 / 4.70 Buslogic BT646S
to drive a Plextor PX-W124TSi, but all it would do upon
starting to write is fill up the device buffer, and then
the device buffer would drain. Once drained, the burn
terminated. This may be an issue with the BusLogic
ROM pairs.
I then installed a Corvette with a wide cable, a
Plextor PX-W124TSi (term disabled), 50 to 68 pin
converter, and left the heatshrinked active terminator
at the end of the F/W cable intact. I used the Adaptec
4.71 ASPI package (includes Win2k version) which
installs version 4.60 (correct for NT 4.0). I used
IMGBurn. Fired the Plextor PX-W124TSi up, waffled
through the IMGburn screens, and waa-laa, we have a
successful burn taking place.
Corvette on 95-Y/NT4/Nero 5.10 Success
This had me going. I attempted to light up a
Plextor PX-W124TSi
12/4/32 at 12x off a Corvette. It bombed under Nero
5.10.56 at 12x (burn
failed, buffer underrun). I throttled it down to 8x,
hung the CD-R and
the data drive off the same Corvette, and I was able to
burn successfully.
I did have to install the Adaptec
ASPI layer, ForceASPI could not successfully
complete the install.
Nero tech support, trying to be helpful, eventually
advised me to enable
DMA on the drives, like I was using W9x/XP or other
kiddie OS. Hint: there
is NO setting under NT to enable DMA. If you run NT
Diagnostics, it reports
DMA is not being used by the system. Yet Nero Infotool
reports DMA... Go
figure.
Burning with Nero 4.0 and WfW 3.11
Ezoto piped up with:
I have Nero 4.0 that works on my 9577BTB. I use a
Ricoh SCSI
burner and a 100meg internal zip drive. I don't
have the dos driver
for the Ricoh but using the Future Domain SCSI card with
the FD drivers
in WFW works perfectly. However after you install
and run it, it asks for the WINASPI.dll file that is in
WIN95 (OSR2 Win95_02.cab) but that is easy to fix since
I copy it from
95 to the WFW system directory. After that I
successfully burned on
my 9577BTB with the 83mhz ODP and 64meg RAM.
One Possible CD Burning
Configuration
For multitasking during a CD-burn session
on a relatively
slow (P90 plus) relatively memory-poor (64MB-128MB)
MCA/PCI-bus system,
I recommend using a whole separate SCSI adapter (with no
non-bus-mastering
I/O for the "other" stuff) controlling a drive dedicated
to the CD Image
and the CD-Writer.
With good software that can work out that
all operations
for the CD-burn are on the same adapter+bus between two
devices then the
controller *should* be able to do inter-drive operations
without anything
but tiny CPU and host memory requirements. This is a
"special situation"
solution that should, in fact, be more commonly known,
understood and described
in the software blurb for CD-R/RW/DVD-R/RW/RAM packages.
*Never* take the "minimum requirements" on
a package/service's
advert to heart. It's based on the poor knowledge and
understanding of
the technical issues by the "general public". A
"fail-safe" cop-out.
--
Regards,
Tim Clarke
(a.k.a. WBST)
CD and DVD Musings
I think you need to differ between two points:
a) what you really need from the hardware
b) what the accompanying (Windows-based) software needs
The data stream required for a 4x burning process is
about 500Kbps,
which can be done with a reasonably configured 486DX33 /
16MB and a sufficiently
fast HD subsystem already. But the lot of the fat
software packages require
Win 9x / ME or even XP - were the latter two are often
too big for older
machines.
The difference between CD-R and CD-RW burner is mainly
just a firmware
issue - and a slightly modified laser control. Since
CD-RW includes burning
CD-R already the manufacturers opted to drop sole CD-R
burners in favor of lower-priced CD-RW units. I can see
no problem with it. I would always prefer a CD-RW
capable burner over one that does
only CD-R.
Far better however is a multiformat burner that also
does DVD in its
various manifestations (DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW and
DVD-RAM ... and
Double Layer) ... plus the CD-R / CD-RW stuff. Would be
a bit more expensive
but more versatile as well. Win98SE is sufficient to run
e.g. MyDVD software
for creating home-made DVDs My PC300GL 6561 with 333MHz
P-II and 128MB
does fine here - and it is far from being a "modern"
system.
Controller and Device Issues
Odd challenge is with a wide hard drive and
burner on
the same controller. I suppose that having a F/W drive
talking to a burner
is overkill, since the HD will be sitting around, waiting
for the CD burner
to come up for air. I had tried to separate HD and burner
onto separate
controllers.
A kicker is a Wide drive and CD burner on a F/W. I had
a 20x Plextor
(with the HPDB68 port) that refused to run on a Corvette
until I disabled
wide messages. Perhaps running the burner and a
dedicated HD on the
same Buslogic BT-646 would then be the best setup.
Lack of ASPI Layer
Known problem. Use ForceASPI
to install an ASPI layer on your 9x/NT system. I have
used it under NT
4.0 without a problem. This will let you have an Adaptec
ASPI layer for
a non-Adaptec SCSI adapter. It works with IBM SCSI
adapters as well. I
know about Spock and the Corvette personally.
Bootable CD on PS/2
Saskia says:
I have probably found out why Server 95
doesn't want to
boot from CDs, except from the ServerGuide CD (thanks
Peter!) and a few
others.
The key is the first sector, a kind of "Boot Sector".
Not a real one,
of course. It is described in the original El Torito
(Boot CD) specification,
but seems to be forgotten in the CD layout
description
and marked as "not necessary". And since El Torito is a
specification
by Phoenix and IBM, IBM CDs do work - they knew how to
do it. The ServerGuide
CD has this "Boot Sector". And others, who implemented
El Torito based
on the specification, just skipped this part.
News!:
I don't know of WinDOS burning programs
like Nero and
so on, but mkisofs (from the CDRTools or CDRTools/2
package) generates
an almost valid booting table. The problem: It generates
it in a file -
named boot.cat(alog) by default - on the file system
instead of sector
0! We need to patch mkisofs to put the boot catalog into
the right position.
But first I'll contact the author of mkisofs, maybe he
can do it better,
faster, and right into the official source tree.
Writing an utility would be a bit
difficult, but not impossible,
because it would need to analyze the disk image if it
already has this
boot catalog. If not, it would need to generate a new
one. And if it has,
it could copy it to sector 0, and subtract the negative
offset to calculate
the new relative addresses. But I'm not sure if I can
program all these
things ... or better: I'm sure I can't program all these
things. Maybe
someone other wants to try it? *g*
Here are the specs, the boot catalog can be found at
section 2: HERE
PS/2 CD "Burnfest" 2005/2006
(by William Walsh, original HERE)
This was going to be a compilation of CD
burning results on IBM PS/2 computer hardware. However, it seems to
have turned out as more of an interesting (okay, maybe) story than a
compilation of results.
To significantly improve the performance of your IBM MCA SCSI subsystem or
adapter, visit the MCABase
and check out the vastly improved Spock-206, AHA-206 (for Adaptec 1640
MCA SCSI host adapters), and the beta Spock-208 driver for Windows NT
(local copy HERE).
Some Introductory Text
Anyone who has spent any amount of time working with and building up
IBM PS/2 computers has probably had the thought of using this hardware
to burn CDs and maybe even DVDs.
Now, in theory this certainly should work, and it ought to work
relatively well. PS/2s generally have respectable disk I/O subsystems
across the spectrum of later models with SCSI. SCSI CD burning hardware
certainly exists and can be used with a PS/2 as long as it meets the
requirements of the host adapter. (Generally, for an IBM MCA SCSI
controller, this would mean that the drive can provide SCSI parity on
the bus.)
The reality can often be very different. Many people have experienced
unexplained (or maybe unexplainable) failures when trying to burn
CD-ROM discs on MCA hardware, especially when Microsoft Windows is the
operating system of choice. Some of the fault seems to lie with
Microsoft, as they did not provide great support for the various IBM
MCA SCSI host adapters. Others have experienced problems with the ASPI
layer in Windows, or, rather, the lack of decent ASPI support "out of
the box".
I first tried burning CDs with a Panasonic/Matsushita 8X CD-R (that's
right, CD-R, not -RW!) installed in an IBM PC Server 500 and connected
to an IBM MCA SCSI controller with cache. In this setup, I used a very
late model adapter, and it was sharing an interrupt with one of the
RAID controllers. The OS of choice was Windows NT 4.0 Server with
Service Pack 6a. For burning software, I elected to use a 5.x version
of Ahead's Nero software package, as I find it to be a very
well-written CD burning program. Long story short, despite the horror
stories I'd heard, this setup worked flawlessly. I could burn around 4X
without issue while still using the computer pretty heavily. If I left
the machine alone, burning at top speed (8x) was certainly possible.
I'd have been content to leave this setup alone, but a hardware failure
of the RAID array and then a basement flood made this setup unusable. I
wasn't sure that I would bother settting a PS/2 up for CD-burning
again. Then discussion came up on the comp.sys.ibm.ps2.hardware
newsgroup came up that made me reconsider. I was "pushed over the edge"
(so to speak) when a group member posted a link to a brand new Yamaha
external CD-R/RW drive on eBay. I placed a bid and won it.
So begins this adventure...
System Requirements
One thing that came up quite often during the various group postings
was the subject of software requirements. In the MCA world, most of the
machines have either 386 or 486 processors. Higher end machines do have
Pentium CPUs and some have been pushed to the point of 200MHz (or 233,
with mixed results) with MMX. However, these are definitely not
the mainstream configuration for many PS/2s...
With this in mind, some folks have raised good questions about our
machines handling the software supplied with burners. More often than
not, the box and any documentation your burner came with is going to
suggest hardware requirements that are well beyond the range that any
true PS/2 machine covered. Of course, most CD burner vendors and
software makers don't test their software packages to find the true
minimum. They simply "pick a number" that would "seem to fit" and go
from there.
Just to alleviate any possible confusion here: Ignore the box and
manual when they talk of system requirements. The only way you'll know
for sure is to try what's in the box and see if it works. The odds can
be very much in your favor.
If this concept is still bothering you, think of it like this: If you
were the CD burner or software vendor, would you take the time and
money to train your support staff on the nuances of 10-15 year old
hardware and similary aged operating systems? Of course not! "Most
people" aren't using such things any longer, so it's much easier for
the hardware and software companies to draw a line that they feel is
"reasonably modern".
Yes, this may mean that you can't call the vendor for help if you run
into trouble. However, if you're into PS/2s and have a fair
understanding of the systems you are running, then the odds are good
that you can work yourself out of any trouble you might get into. And
that's to say nothing of the comp.sys.ibm.ps2.hardware
newsgroup...which is still somewhat active today.
Oh, and one more thing: If the software included with your burner
doesn't happen to work with your PS/2, there are lots of alternative
programs that may well work better for you. A Google search can turn up
plenty of alternative choices.
Operating System Requirements
...can be a little trickier. Some newer software may want Windows 2000,
Me, XP or newer. These operating systems are out of the reach of MCA
hardware.
Generally speaking, there is often a way to get most software running
on an operating system it doesn't support. Sometimes it is just a
question of being able to provide the needed support software to the
program.
There is also the possibility of using another OS, such as OS/2 or
Linux to do your CD-burning tasks if you can't find a suitable
Windows-based package.
Okay, now that we've got the introduction out of the way...
Experiences & Tests
At first I had thoughts of testing across a wide variety of MCA and
clone-boxen computers, just to get a feel for what was possible over the SCSI
bus, and to see how CPU speed played into it. I gathered together a Yamaha
CRW-2200S external SCSI CD burner, a copy of Nero Burning ROM 5.5 and a number
of computers.
A little later on I changed what I had plans to do. I first learned that for
whatever reason, the Yamaha drive and a variety of IBM MCA SCSI adapters
weren't getting along. For whatever reason, attaching the Yamaha drive to the
external port of an IBM MCA SCSI controller resulted in the controller failing
to work at all. I tried several other MCA SCSI controllers with a PS/2 Server
95a running Windows NT 4.0 SP6a. For whatever reason, only the lowest
performing adapter (a Future Domain MCS-700) would work to burn CDs. Others
would cause the process to fail almost immediately. I did a lot of diddling
around with swapping cards, reloading drivers, reapplying the NT service pack
and installing Force ASPI...all to no avail. I stopped the whole process
shortly after finding that the Future Domain card would allow up to a 4X burn,
but that it absolutely floored a Pentium 90 CPU in order to do so.
On the clone front, I found that the fastest I could drive the Yamaha burner
appeared to be 12X from an Adaptec 1460 SlimSCSI PCMCIA card installed in a
Dell Latitude D800. I figured this probably represented the best performance
that the burner could offer, as a 2.0GHz Pentium M (Centrino) ought to have no
problem running a PCMCIA SCSI board to its limits.
Finally, I came back to the whole idea of burning a CD on MCA hardware, long
after the frustration had subsided. This time around, I set up a PS/2 Model
9585-0XF with Windows NT 4.0, a 486DX4-100 upgrade CPU from Intel, 64MB RAM,
onboard IBM cached SCSI, a Seagate Barracuda ST12550N hard disk, a Madge Smart
16/4 MC Ringnode network adapter and an NCR SIOP SCSI adapter. The onboard IBM
SCSI would handle the hard disk and booting the OS. The NCR 53C710 SIOP board
(card-ID 01BA) would handle the Yamaha CD burner. I got the OS running and
updated before installing Force ASPI and Nero Burning ROM 5.5.
To test the burning part, I prepared about 650MB of files. Some files were
big, and others were smaller, just to help provide a balanced test. Big files
generally don't fit into a program's buffer, although they cut down on the
overhead of being found, opened and transferred to CD. With smaller files, the
files do generally fit into a buffer, but the computer and CD burning software
must find, open and transfer each one, which adds some delay in the burning
process.
With the data prepared and a blank CD-R loaded, I fired up the burning
software and told it to simulate the production of an ISO-9660/Joliet formatted
disc. I picked the 8X speed option, and started the process. A short while
later, the simulated burn process had completed without incident. While it ran,
the software-based buffer of 32MB never dropped below 75% and the CD burner
buffer stayed at 98%.
The 8X burn didn't make for a usable system. I didn't find that to be a big
deal, as I could go use another computer, and it really is a good idea to just
leave the CD burner alone while it runs. While I did not try it, a 12X burn may
well have been possible even without turning the buffer underrun protection on.
All things considered, the results shown here are pretty respectable.
A Word About Adapters
If you are familiar with the MCA bus and adapters that are available, you'll
notice that I tried to select adapters capable of busmastering or streaming
data transfer. Adapters on the MCA bus can (but do not have to) be intelligent
devices with their own CPUs and controlling software. While the OS in use
doesn't always support these features, an adapter that can work by itself
without calling upon the main system CPU for help can ease the load on a
heavily-worked system. While I don't know if the NCR 01BA SIOP (SCSI I/O
Processor) adapter supports busmastering, it does support data streaming across
the MCA bus if you elect to turn it on in system programs.
For this system's network connection, I picked a Madge Smart 16/4 MC
Ringnode adapter. This is a token ring adapter, which isn't a big deal since I
have two running TR networks, one for 16 megabit stuff and the other for 4
megabit stuff. (Both are linked to my Ethernet stuff, so every computer on the
network can see every other without issue.) This adapter is running on the 4
megabit side. However, unlike the very common IBM "shared RAM" token ring
adapter, this can busmaster and supports data streaming features if you enable
them. If you have data residing elsewhere on your computer network that you
wish to burn to CD, it's probably going to be a large amount of a data. An
adapter capable of busmastering and data streaming can ease the load on the
system and let you use it for other tasks while you transfer data in
preparation for a CD burning session.
The point of this discussion is to help you decide what kind of MCA adapters
you might wish to populate a CD burning PS/2 with. While at first you may have
to use what you have, there is no reason why you can't look out for better
performing options and hardware in the future. It will pay to do so for the
most part.
If Things Don't Work
Unfortunately, as the experiences I haven't gotten into would show, burning
CDs on a PS/2 can be quite an adventure. (It can be an adventure on any other
type of older computer too!) Sometimes things don't work, and the failures are
not easily explained.
If you run into this, my suggestion is to change your plans. If you have
another PS/2 around, and it has a reasonably powerful CPU, give it a try. It
may work where the other system would not.
Force ASPI on Windows
definitely can help. You can try to burn CDs without it, and it might work. If
it does not, try this before giving up. Very modern versions of CD
burning software may really not work, or demand more CPU power than you can
easily get if they do work. I'd heartily recommend use of Ahead Software's Nero
Burning ROM...for me it has been a high quality CD burning software package.
Versions 4.0 through 6.0 all work well on PS/2 hardware.
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