The settings mentioned in the following have been kept fairly general. For some CD Writer however a different setting may sometimes be necessary. On this see the following special settings

• CD Writer for which other settings are to be recommended (should there be any problems):
• Plextor PX-R412C, Mitsubishi CDVR4X12T:

synchronous transfer = disabled

• If you are using a mainboard which has an Onboard-SCSI controller, then for certain graphics cards you should make sure that they are not allocated the same IRQ as the Onboard-SCSI controller as many cards are not capable of sharing IRQs, e.g. graphics cards with the Riva TNT chip set.
• The Resume function which can be enabled on some computers should always be disabled as this could otherwise lead to writing errors in the burning process.
• If you are using a Ricoh CD Writer and an Adaptec 2920 and there is absolutley no way of solving the problem, then for test purposes you should use another SCSI hostadapter.


SCSI Hostadapter

For SCSI devices, as a general rule the jumper 'Parity' should be enabled (for all devices connected and the SCSI hostadapter itself).

Apart from that, as a general rule the Wide Negotiation should be disabled.

Please refrain from giving IRQ9 to the SCSI hostadapter as it only uses an 8-Bit Interrupt Vector. It would be better to use 10, 11 or 12 (only if a PS/2 mouse is not connected).

Note: You should avoid using an ISA SCSI Hostadapter. Reason: In the boards available today with a PCI bus, the ISA bus comea after the PCI bus and only has a very low priority as far as reading and writing enquiries are concerned. This means that the possible transfer rate decreases which can seriously hamper burning at 4x or higher. The busmaster-capable ISO controllers should be seen as being critical, e.g. the Adaptec 1542xx.

Settings within the BIOS SCSI hostadapters:



Adaptec SCSI Hostadapter

• Recommended settings if an Adaptec SCSI hostadapter is being used

  - Plug & Play SCAM support: NO

  - BIOS support for bootable CDROM: NO

  - BIOS Support for INT13 devices: NO (if there are no SCSI hard disks

                                        attached to the same controller)

                                    YES (if there are SCSI hard disks

        attached to the same controller)

  - Reset SCSI-Bus at IC Initialization

  - Support removable media as fixed disk: NO

  - Ultra and Wide Negotiation: NO 

  - Initiate Wide Negotiation: NO

  - Disable Synchronous Negotiation: YES

  - Initiate Sync Negotiation: NO

  - Maximum Sync Transfer rate: Minimal value

  - Enable Disconnection: YES

  - Enable Ultra SCSI Speed: NO

• We have received several reports of problems with the Adaptec 2940BIOS version 1.3 which did not exist with version 1.2. If you are using version 1.3 and your system crashes frequently, then you should downgrade to version 1.2 or if you have it, update to a newer version, which hopefully will not cause this problem.
• If you are working in Windows NT, you should read the following article:

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q160/3/73.asp (Adaptec Aic78xx Does Not Issue Multiple Tagged Commands)

The article should particularly be read if access to the devices which are attached to an Adaptec AIC78xx controller is comparatively slow. The solution for this is to upgrade to SP4 or to a later SP.

• Please check if you are using the newest BIOS of your SCSIhostadapter, e.g.:
• for an Adaptec 1542CF or 154X, at least the BIOS version 2.x should be installed.
• for a Symbios SYM875, ASUS PCI-SC875 or a compatible SCSI hostadapter you should check for typing errors you are using the newest BIOS version (at least ver4.08.00) and the newest driver version.
• If you are working in Windows NT and are using an Adaptec 1542B SCSI hostadapter and the computer is working comparatively slowly, then you should read the following article:

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q157/9/10.asp (Windows NT Seems to Hang During Boot and Slow Performance)

• Recommended settings for an Advansys SCSI hostadapter

Synchronous Transfer = disabled

Ultra Feature = disabled

If you are using a Yamaha CD Writer then you should make sure that the BIOS version of the Advansys SCSI hostadapter is at least version 2.7.

• Recommended settings for a Diamond Fireport 40 SCSI Hostadapter:

    Sync Rate = 10 or 20 but sometimes it has to be 5

    Data width = 8

    Disc = ON

    Time out = 10

    SCAN Settings --> BUS = YES

    LUNS = NO

    Queue Tags = Enabled.

• Apart from that. the settings of the Fireport SCSI hostadapter in the Device Manager should be adjusted as follows if you are using a Panasonic 7502: " DisableAutoReqSense=1;do_SCAM=0;"

• For the DawiControllers (DC2975, DC2976) in the BIOS the options for the burner should be set as follows:
• Disconnect/Reselect: Yes
• Transfer Method: Async
• Transfer Width: 8Bit
• Maximum Data Rate: 5MBs
• If your DawiController does not have a BIOS, then this has to be done in the Device Manager:

Please set the following options in the parameter line:

/!SN=<ID of the burner> /DISC=<ID of the burner>

Recommended settings for a Tekram / Symbios / NCR SCSI hostadapter

• For all devices, the Tekram / Symbios / NCR-Hostadapter Parity-Check should be switched on and XOR should be switched off.
• The BIOS of the Tekram / Symbios / NCR-card must be at least Rel. 3.06.00: You will find this out via the following BIOS message when booting:

NCR SDMS (TM) V3.0 PCI SCSI BIOS, PCI Rev. 2.0, NCRPCI-3.06.0

• On most of the NCR cards there are one or two jumpers which can be used to allocate the plug-in card of a PCI interrupt line and the status of a first or second controller. Usually only the latter is present. As a general rule the card in INTA should be jumped to second. Please check this. Often the NCR controller has to be plugged into PCI slot 1 so that slot 1 is operated correctly on PCA-INTA.

Problems which are record-specific:

• If you have a Panasonic 7502 then you should download the newest Symbios driver: ftp://ftp.lsil.com/pub/symchips/scsi/drivers and use at least firmware x.10.
• If you have a Plextor PX - R820T and the Symbios SYM20810 SCSI controller, then you should at least update to firmware 1.05.