Thinkpads Forum

I have an IBM FRU# 08k9617 UltraBay 2000 CD-RW drive converted to UltraSlim Bay and it works perfectly to read CD's, but in 98SE or 2000 pro, nothing will write to it. Why not? IBM doesn't have any drivers. Are there any? How would I find them?

You need a CD burning program, like Nero Burning ROM, Easy CD Creator, IBM RecordNow. You are right that XP and later versions of Windows have this capability built in, but not older versions.

You can get RecordNow here:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 57007.html

Now I have XP installed (those who told me it reqires at least a 1 Ghz CPU and 1Gb RAM to perform well are full of beans.) and while it tries to write to the CD, it has an unidentified "error" (that's all it tells me - an error) while trying to write. Power ISO won't recognize the drive. IMGBurn says it failed to send a "cue sheet".

This is obviousy either a driver problem or a hardware problem. But how do I find out anything more specific?

Generally, I don't think there should be special drivers needed to use almost any CD/CD-RW/DVD/DVD-RW drive. If you are getting an error, however, there could be a variety of issues that are indeed software related as well as potential hardware issues. In the case of CD/CD-RW drives released by IBM for the 600/770 series, I don't recall seeing any drivers for ANY of them.

Here are some thoughts:
- Do you know for sure that it is a good drive?
- Double-check that the hardware is installed correctly (plugs inserted correctly when you converted from UltraBay 2000 to UltraSlim Bay?)
- Double-check that you insert good quality, new, standard length CD-RW media, and not old media, pre-used media, or any media that has been designed for longer than the original standard 640MB (or whatever it is). Some drives can be finnicky about the media you insert for burning, though they read regular just CDs fine.
- While there may not be drivers for the drive, there may be firmware updates for the drive, and those can affect whether a drive is "seen" correctly. To find firmware updates, the IBM part number or FRU is not important. What you need is the drive info from Device Manager or from the label you may have seen on the raw drive when you converted it over to the UltraSlim Bay caddy (if that is how you "converted" it).
- While there may not be drivers for the drive, different burning programs use different methods of identifying and communicating with the drives, and in some cases, a burning program has an internal list of compatible hardware. (This is the case for Nero, for sure). If your drive is not on that list, then the burning program won't recognize the drive and can't burn to it.
- On a long shot, you might also double-check that you've got your temp directories configured correctly...

That's all I can think of at the moment.

Oh, and for what it's worth, dr_st's recommendations of burning software look good to me. I have used both Nero and Easy CD Creator successfully with a variety of CD-RW drives from the early 2000's era in 600/770 machines under Win98/2000/XP. And RecordNow is probably backward-compatible with most drives that were used in older Thinkpads (if indeed there is a possibility of backwards compaibility issues, as opposed to a drive "just working" through some kind of regular plug-and-play identification).

Phil.

Windows XP should not require any driver to be installed in order to read or write a CD-R or CD-RW. Your problem could either be with the drive or with the blank disk(s) you are using. The easiest thing to check would be to use a different brand of CD-R or CD-RW or if you are currently using CD-R, try an RW disk and vice versa.

As you say that the drive still reads disks, then it's possible that there's some dust or dirt on the lens of the laser, preventing the drive from writing data. Use a Q-tip to lightly brush the surface of the lens. It's located about an inch out from the center of the hub. Don't put too much downward pressure on it otherwise you may damage the alignment; it should float freely up and down by about 1mm.

I'm using some HP CD-RW disks. I might have some others around to try, but I don't think that's it. I've already cleaned the lens too.

I have another clue. Power ISO finally recognized the drive in XP, but said something about a power problem. (I don't remember the exact words.) When I'm done with some other installation, I will try something too obvious to have thought of before: clean the connector.

I've seen "power calibration" error messages when attempting to burn a disk and it's usually due to a defective drive (not enough power from the laser beam) or bad/incompatible media.

The problem seems to have been solved...sort of. I got a stack of Gigaware CD-R's at Radio Shack, and they work perfectly. Maybe it just doesn't like hp. My computer dealer suggested that it might be the speed of the CD-RW. If the disk is too fast, it won't work in an older drive?