quote:

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Originally posted by KCK

spoilsport:

Glad to hear about your success!



BTW, were you able to get rid of MusicMatch simply via Add/Remove programs, or did you have to remove it from UpperFilters manually?

MusicMatch uninstalled gracefully from Add/Remove


I hope you have downloaded Nero Language pack to get help files.

I haven't yet. Thanks for the tip. Ahead's website doesn't offer much in the way of support for InCD.


Let us know how things work once you get the USB 2.0 card.

Will do!

As for your 98SE laptop, the InCD 98x guide should help, although older systems typically accumulate a lot of burning programs and plugins. I guess you have tried the USB 1.1 interface so far. If you wanted to get a USB 2.0 PC Card, beware that there are incompatibilities between some cards and laptop controllers (bridges), and for 98SE one must use USB 2.0 drivers provided by vendors. Thus it's best to do some research before buying a PC Card, and to ensure that the card can be returned if it doesn't work.


Here's where it gets interesting!


The good news is that both Nero Burning Rom and InCD are up and running well on my laptop. Furthermore, I 'freshened' the laptop with a format c: /s after backing everything up. Then I installed XP Home Edition and everything (almost) is nice and clean!

Here's the bad news: [8)]

While getting things in order on the old W98 machine, I decided to do a Windows Update. There was one IE 6 related upgrade, and a slew of foreign language support. I did the IE 6 upgrade and afterwards could not find my COM2 port! [V]

The machine was ready for a cleaning anyway, and I got everything off that I needed with NBR. I was shocked that a nice clean install of XP didn't remedy the lost COM2 port. There are no conflicts or problems in Device Manager. The Add Hardware routine flopped as Windows didn't recognize the port. I could install a generic port, but not without creating a hardware conflict. My modem checks out OK. I've never encountered this problem.

Anyway, thanks again for your help. I've got 2 machines running IncD flawlessly. I'm off to hunt for a Windows Troubleshooting Forum!
[:I]

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(in reply to BobD)

spoilsport:

Thanks for the info on MusicMatch.

It's strange that you lost your COM2 port after doing a Windows Update under 98SE. I also installed two critical updates yesterday, and didn't notice anything strange. I can't check my 98SE laptop right now; on the other hand, I'm no longer using COM ports on my home LAN.

In such cases, I would first check the laptop's manufacturer's site for recent BIOS upgrades (that's why my laptops come from Dell). Also take a look at the COM settings in BIOS. E.g., my older laptops still have some weird settings needed for Infrared connections, which I only used for testing.

(in reply to BobD)

KCK:

Actually all is fine. I noticed that the modem was connected to COM2, but that the COM2 port wasn't listed in DM. It's that way on my Dell XP box at home as well.
DUH! [:o)]

Anyway I'm connected and currently using it to write this response.

I also doubt that the IE6 upgrade whacked the COM port. I was being a bit carefree........or should I say care_less, as I was prepared to just go ahead and format c. I probably effed up something else.

Right now, I don't care.

I do appreciate your help very much. One of the great things about the internet is the ability to tap into the weatlth of knowledge available at some Forums. I've been fortunate to find this one! [^]

(in reply to BobD)

spoilsport:

All is well that ends well.

BTW, on my Dell Latitude C840 with XP Pro, Device Manager shows only COM1, and the internal PCTEL modem separately.

(in reply to BobD)

Glad to see it wasn't a MusicMatch problem. I've been using it since it was originally released on the market, and have never had an issue with it, minus the CDText feature does not work, and STILL does not work, even though TechSupport will tell ya that it does.

(in reply to BobD)

MP3Mogul:

Why do you think it wasn't a MusicMatch problem? We weren't sure, since spoilsport had made many changes at the same time, but MusicMatch looked suspicious, to say the least.

Do you mean that you have been running MusicMatch and InCD under XP or W2K without problems? If yes, please tell us!

(in reply to BobD)

reply to bob's old prob...

i read a review (technical) on adaptecs burning s/w way back when. got all fidgety and excited...[:p]
looked good so bought an acer drive with the s/w, after all, adaptec invented udf and the review said there would be regular updates patches...
me and a hundred thousand others ran into that d*** formatting problem. the scandisk option was supposed to fix it, but all it did was read![:(!]
me and a 100k ppl wrote emails to adaptec, instead of replying, they sold out to roxio. but the s/w itself stated that we were entitled to a WORKING version of the scandisk. adaptec did nothing, but they fwrded the mail to roxio. somebody decided that they bought it lock stock and barrel, they had to back the third party contract. but years went by...[|)]
i refused to fix my disks...i'm stubborn...[}:)]a friend had the same prob, i told him to make a bin of a blank rewriteable and do a seemless burn...he went away...i kept emailing and checking both roxio and adaptecs page...[:(!][:(!][:(!]
about 3 months ago, I found something new on the roxio site...its nowhere near the downloads stuff
scandisk v 5.01.exe standalone package, it seems to have been pulled now, but i have my (legal) copy! oh well, i guess i'll stop sending them emailsemailsemailzzzzz[|)]
a good scandisk program is the first step to file recovery (pompous nose in the air smiley)
it seems to work with everybody elses proprietary direct systems...

oh yeah, if anybody knows a prgrmr who does file systems, I do packets, i'm interested in working on a "streaming" udf project...

- thedoctorisin@sasktel.net -
- ******be-right-back****** -
beer: its good for what ales ya

(in reply to BobD)

LLayr,

I can enlighten you as to the Roxio/Adaptec mess, as I used to do tech support for Easy CD Creator 5 at Roxio...

First off, Roxio was spun off from Adaptec when they decided that they wanted to not be a software company. ECDC 5 was rushed into production without proper debugging. That is why it first caused BSODs with win2k and winXP.

I can also tell you that DirectCD is crap. Aside from installation and buffer underrun issues, DirectCD took up 80% of our remaining calls. The DirectCD udf system just doesn't work well with Win2k or WinXP. For that matter we actually saw better performance using CDR's with DirectCD then using CDRW's. The scandisk utility never worked for me. Not once. Its fluff software. All it could do was confirm that the disc was hosed.

InCD performs much much better then DIrectCD ever did. (yeah, no one in Roxio tech support used Easy CD Creator )

I can also tell you that I think most people shouldn't bother with packet writing. Bottom line is that it is unreliable media. If you finalize an iso9660 or Joliet data cd then you pretty much don't have much to worry about regarding that data. But using a udf packet writing cd, then the fact is that eventually you will lose all the data on that cd. All it takes is one bad write and its gone.

For me, I don't think the risk of data loss is worth the convience. If you do need to use a udf writter for something, by all means make sure you back those disks up with iso9660 or joliet disks regularly.

Thats all just my opinion though. Oh, and btw, I quit Roxio because they were about to dump all of the tech support out of company, well that and the job sucked...

(in reply to BobD)

Abaques:

Welcome to the CDRInfo forum!

Thanks for sharing your insider's info on DirectCD.

I agree entirely with your conclusions on the unreliability of packet writing in general, especially due to the poor performance of CD-RW media.

However, for temporary storage (as opposed to real backups), packet writing is more convenient than multisession writing. Hence I've been active on this forum (and others) to help users to troubleshoot InCD problems. In practice most of these problems can be attributed to conflicts with Roxio's software. Hence your expert advice on such issues would be most welcome. In particular, I would appreciate your comments on the ways of removing Roxio's drivers given in the InCD guides:

http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=9572 (XP)

http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=9997 (W2K)

http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=9597 (98x)

It would really help to have a former Roxio employee here!

(in reply to BobD)

I definately say "ditto" I gave up on the packet writing a long time ago because it's just plain "not relaible". With the cost of CDR media so cheap these days, the only thing I use cdrw's for is making test cd's prior to burns, and for making audio cd's to play in my car stereo, bring it home, erase it, and make one for the next day, etc.

(in reply to BobD)

Hey KCK and co., glad to help out when I can.

I do agree with you regarding when packet writing should be used, I just think that the marketing folks are deluding the people buying Creator into thinking that DirectCD was actually reliable.

It was fairly common for businesses to call in asking how to get data off a directCD disk they had been using as their sole backup media for 2 or 3 years. The marketing makes it seem like you can do that, and nothing in the instructions said that was a bad idea, but in reality those poor people are screwed.

I have to say that the guides you posted for XP and 98 (all the links were down and google didn't have the 2k link cached) pretty much were right on. You got essentially every file that can cause a problem.

About the only other thing we would do when doing a "clean uninstall" would be to remove the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Adaptec (or Roxio) keys, as the uninstaller will rather often leave them. Of course if other Roxio or Adaptec software is installed you have to go in alittle deeper to get the exact keys, but its usually not needed.

One of Easy CD Creator 5's biggest faults (and there are many) is that its installer is really bad. It relies on the Window's Installer to do most of its work, and the fact is that the Window's Installer just isn't as reliable as it should be. That and the scripting for it just wasn't well thought out. If Creator leaves one thing behind, odds are it left alot behind.

The Upper/LowerFilters issue is another one that was especially common, and it wasn't always caused by Creator. Usually thats an installation/uninstall issue as well. And sometimes simply clearing those out and reinstalling can fix some things you wouldn't expect it to.

One other thing to mention...

On Win2k and WinXP, before doing an uninstall, always make sure that the version of Easy CD Creator is 5.1 or higher. In previous versions Take Two was still installed and it put the file prtseqrd.sys into the startup area of windows (after 10 monthes of searching with no help from Q/A or the software engineers, cause all the Take Two guys got fired, we could never find out exactly where). The uninstall will take that file out and it can sometimes cause a BSOD on reboot. A BSOD that safe mode or the winXP restore will not fix.

So if the version is before 5.1, always search for prtseqrd.sys and rename it before the Add/Remove programs uninstall. Then rename it back. Alternatively, you could just update Creator to the latest build before uninstalling (which may be easier for people who don't feel comfortable digging around their system).

I will try to swing by here every once in awhile. Its always good to help when you can.

(in reply to BobD)

Abaques:

You made a very good point: the makers/sellers of packet writing software should make explicit warnings about potential reliability problems.

I'm sorry that the CDRLabs links were down over the weekend (seem to be OK now).

Many thanks for your additional insight on Roxio's uninstallation issues.

As for prtseqrd.sys, it is mentioned in the InCD guides for W2K and XP. If I remember correctly, prtseqrd.sys tended to appear only in the UpperFilters/LowerFilters entries, so cleaning these entries as indicated in S11.5 should take care of it. Still, you are right that for some users it may be preferable to upgrade Roxio's software to the latest version before trying to uninstall it via Add/Remove Programs.

(in reply to BobD)

Yeah, the prtseqrd.sys issue isn't such a big deal anymore as most people have 5.1 or higher versions of Creator. When I first started at Roxio it was pretty much the nightmare call, but that slowly changed.

(in reply to BobD)