Conference noted::ibmpc-95

    Hmmmm, well my CDROM player drive led flashes yellow when reading
    an audio CD, and flashes green if it's reading a software CD.
    Also, the audio CD doesn't have a narrow silverized band around its
    outer edge like a software CD does. At least that's what I've
    noticed. So you may want to check this out on the PhotoCD's you
    are trying to load. I've never loaded or seen up close a PhotoCD
    so I can't say how it fits one of the two above scenarios.
    
    Bob

    Turn off auto-insert notification for CDs and the occasional flashing
    will go away.  This is Windows 95 checking the drive to see if a CD has
    been inserted.  Or just ignore it.
    
    If you want to turn off auto-insert, do it from the Properties dialog
    box for the CD drive in the System applet.
    
    				Steve

    I tried turning off auto-insert notification with no change to the
    problem. I don't think it's a software setup issue anyway; the flashing 
    starts almost as soon as the PC is powered up (with a PhotoCD in the
    drive), long before Win95 boots.
    
    This only happens with PhotoCDs, and continues ad infinitum. It's
    still possible to read from the PhotoCD normally.
    
    Does this sound like a hardware problem/imcompatibility ? What would
    cause the CDROM drive to be constantly accessing the PhotoCD ?
    I'm pretty sure this is a new phenomenon (think I would have noticed 
    before now).
    
    thanks for any suggestions,
    Antony.

    Got any software like HiJaak Pro installed?  This has an "agent"
    that constantly goes out and catalogs images.
     

>    Got any software like HiJaak Pro installed?  This has an "agent"
>    that constantly goes out and catalogs images.
    
    No, and as I said, this problem occurs almost as soon as the machine
    is powered up i.e. before it has booted up or loaded the o/s.
    
    Antony.

    I was looking at a laptop in Lechmere this weekend, and noticed that a
    Sharp laptop has a status led for the CD that seems to flash when there
    is no disk in the drive (don't know what happens when you put a disk in
    the drive).
    
    I don't know if this was expected behavior, or if the floor model was
    somehow malfunctioning.  I've also seen on my laptop that the CD status
    light flashes when a music CD is playing.
    
    I'd guess that different systems do different things for different
    reasons.  That doesn't help if the flashing is making you mental.
    
    jeb
    

    The CD led on that laptop may be flashing when there's no
    disk in there because of some application/tsr running which
    checks periodically for the presence of a disk.
    Every CD I've encountered home/work flashes when there is an
    audio disk playing, or sometimes briefly when loading/unloading the
    tray.
    
    Bob

    To clarify/restate:
    
     - The CDROM drive is a Toshiba 2X running off a SCSI interface
    provided by a Mediavision sound card, on a 466 desktop. 
    
     - As soon as the system powers up (with a PhotoCD loaded in the drive)
    the access light starts to flash regularly (even before Win95 loads) and 
    continues ad infinitum.
    
     - This behaviour does not occur with other CDROMs, audio CDs, or an
    empty drive.
    
    I'm assuming that this results in (a) unnecessary wear and tear on the 
    drive mechanism, and (b) some performance impact when I run an
    application that really does need to access the PhotoCD.
    
    Antony.

Don't assume that the access light indicates any mechanical activity.  My
NEC 3xi SCSI drive flashes its light periodically as W95 polls it, but nothing
spins up.

				Steve

    > - The CDROM drive is a Toshiba 2X running off a SCSI interface
    >provided by a Mediavision sound card, on a 466 desktop. 
    
    Ah!  That rings a bell!  Can you access the photo CD?  I definitely
    remember problems with early Toshiba drives not being able to handle
    photo CDs properly (in fact, I have one right here on my desk!  :-(
    
    In the case of the DEC pcs, I believe a new driver and a BIOS upgrade
    were required (SCSI was on the motherboard).  You might have a similar
    problem, even if you can access the photo CD properly.  Toshiba 2x and
    Mediavision, being older technology, may present a challenge to newer
    operating systems.
    
    jeb
    

Adaptec's utilties include a "Drive light" program which, when running
tell you when each SCSI device is being access.  

I'm running W95 and every three seconds the SCSI light is going on/off.  With 
or without ANY disk in the unit.

Brian J

I just upgraded to a 16x CD-ROM IDE from a 3x SCSI , and it seems to 
me that Win95 is accessing this every now and then, for no apparent 
reason!

I'm positive I saw something about this somewhere on the Internet, 
but for the life of me can't re-find it!

Anyone seen any info on this?

Greg

    w95 has 'auto disk insert notification' as on option under the CDROM in
    the 'device manager'.  It probes the drive to see if there is a new
    disc in it to change the disc icon, to load the auto insert file or to
    start playing if it's an audio CD.
    
    TweakUI has an option to disable either the audio disc insert
    notification or the data disc insert notification.
    
    Jason

You can also disable auto-insert notification from the CD-ROM properties in
the System applet.

				Steve

I've attributed my pause to the particular game, TombRaider, asking 
the CD-ROM for audio every 3 minutes.

However, I had no pauses on my 3x SCSI NEC CD-ROM, but now see them 
on my 16X IDE Goldstar.

I spoke to the shop today who said 'it's a feature' as the drive has 
to spin up!

Anyone have any thoughts on this? I intend to speak to Goldstar tech 
support, otherwise the drive is going back.


Greg

Cheap drives will take a while to spin up.  I've been very pleased with the
new Plextor 12X I bought - not only is it fast, but it's SILENT!

				Steve