CDRW worked in Win98SE, inoperable in XP

January 11, 2004 3:12 PM

I have a MITSUMI CR-4804TE CDRW drive. While it's slow, it worked perfectly fine for me while I was running Win98SE. Now that I've got XP, it's all gone to pot [more].

I've done a google search, and other people have this problem, but I've yet to find a definite solution. Thus far, I've tried:

* searching the mitsumi site (and driversguide, and just about everywhere else)-- they only have drivers for this CDRW for DOS on up to NT-- nothing for 2000 or XP. I tried the NT version, and it didn't work. Literally. I get that program crash dialogue. (I did find a driver that claimed it was for XP also. Didn't work.)

* reinstalling the hardware. After removing it from the device manager and rebooting, XP automatically installs a driver for a CD-R drive. I have a CDRW.

* manually removing the driver and installing the mitsumi driver that came with Windows. (Nope.)

* using other software. I've tried Nero and Roxio (Easy CD Creator.)

When I used to load a blank CD (in 98), I'd get a prompt asking what I wanted to do (burn a CD in Nero, in Real Media, etcetera.) Now, nothing happens. I'm about 100% there's nothing wrong with the drive, as my cousin just finished trying it on a win98 box, and it works.

Is there anything else I can do?

posted by precocious to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Don't take this the wrong way, but junk the Mitsumi. They are a moronic company and deserve to die.

Back in "the day" before anyone else gave even two craps about ripping songs to MP3 (when it would take an hour to encode just one) Mitsumi pioneered drives that refused to rip audio. Not because they couldn't make them do that, but because Mitsumi is on record as saying "That would encourage piracy".

Everyone who knows that makes a conscious decision to avoid anything Mitsumi. Especially CDRW drives. They're hypocrites and need to be treated as such.

>Is there anything else I can do?

The only think I can think of, other than the above, is trying the windows port of cdrecord (yes, it works well). Maybe you'll get lucky! Here's hoping! :-)
posted by shepd at 4:06 PM on January 11, 2004

With CD-Writers so insanely cheap, why not just blow $45 bucks and get an MSI CDRW+DVD-Rom drive? You could even spend 5 bucks less and get a generic Aopen 52x CD-RW drive. I used to own the exact model CD-RW you have, and moving up to a 52X burner makes writing CD's a completely different experience.
posted by Keyser Soze at 5:22 PM on January 11, 2004

Try disabling the (utter crap, licensed from Roxio) built-in XP burning software. I'm afraid I'm in a hurry, so I can't point you to instructions for that. The Nero demo also has a whole bunch of diagnostic tools. Have you tried those?

(Keyser's got the best idea though - the hardware is pretty cheap these days.)
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:58 PM on January 11, 2004

LiteOn 52X burner. $34, free FedEx shipping. NewEgg. Today only.
posted by kindall at 8:51 AM on January 12, 2004

Response by poster: After trying various suggestions and driver updates, I think you all might have a point.

Thanks for the links, guys!
posted by precocious at 9:14 AM on January 12, 2004