Qaud Speed CD-ROM drives

Twiggy

Hey.

I am looking into buying this: http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Mitsumi-4x-IDE-I ... SwxbtZolpQ

I want to replace my 32x drive with this quad speed as quad speed is what the computer I will be putting this in originally came with, and I am all about period-appropriateness if possible.

I just have some questions, will this be able to read all CD's or just those burnt at 4x or lower?

If for example I put a cd burnt at 16x will it read it but just a 4x or will it not work completely?

menage

An early CD-ROM like 4x would be may have problems reading CD-R or CD-RW discs. Check for the logos.

If the disc is correctly written at 16x, the 4x drive (any drive for that matter) should be able to read the disc.

Use the burner software's built in verify function. Saves a lot of time instead of trying to read a faulty disc. With errors, cut recording speed but don't go too slow for the discs you use. I have seen CD-Rs rated at 52x fail all the time when recorded at 1x or 2x but higher speeds work fine if the system can keep up.

If you can find them, there are still low speed CD-Rs on the market. Aimed for the music die hards who believe faster recording speeds produce worse sounding music. Cost about $2 a disc instead of the 10 to 20 cents a disc for decent quality bulk high speed CD-Rs. You may get fewer coasters using them with older drives but you will still wind up wasting a disc or two trying to figure out optimum settings.

Twiggy

menage wrote:

An early CD-ROM like 4x would be may have problems reading CD-R or CD-RW discs. Check for the logos.

If the disc is correctly written at 16x, the 4x drive (any drive for that matter) should be able to read the disc.

Use the burner software's built in verify function. Saves a lot of time instead of trying to read a faulty disc. With errors, cut recording speed but don't go too slow for the discs you use. I have seen CD-Rs rated at 52x fail all the time when recorded at 1x or 2x but higher speeds work fine if the system can keep up.

If you can find them, there are still low speed CD-Rs on the market. Aimed for the music die hards who believe faster recording speeds produce worse sounding music. Cost about $2 a disc instead of the 10 to 20 cents a disc for decent quality bulk high speed CD-Rs. You may get fewer coasters using them with older drives but you will still wind up wasting a disc or two trying to figure out optimum settings.

I'll be burning on my modern computer, only reading with the 4x drive. I take it then, that if I burn at 16x the CD's should work in all drives I may want to put it in?

altracker9

Keep in mind that the 4x CD drive is the pinch point in many PC Multimedia applications, even in period applications.
The applications generally work, but reading can be slow.

I also have an Acer Acros (1995 Tower) that came with a 4X CD Drive.
Upgraded the 4x to 20x after a few years and eventually 52x.
Period appropriateness takes last place to performance on all my legacy PCs, with few exceptions.

epguy7

@Twiggy said:

I'll be burning on my modern computer, only reading with the 4x drive. I take it then, that if I burn at 16x the CD's should work in all drives I may want to put it in?

no. CDs burned at 16x speed may or may not work on some slow 4x CD drives, especially music CDs.

I know because I have done this a few times burning such CDs from some modern high-speed CD/DVD burners and when I tried to play these CDs on much older 4x CD drives, they either take too long to read or they do not work.

sdose

There may be another issue. Most of the old 4x drives will be broken after that long time. It may read or may not.
So you have to possible reasons for a not-working-failure, the CD may be not good for this drive, the drive could be a bitch.

Those old mechanics are usually worn out and not to repair. The laser could be "blind", the cogs/teethrows/... are out of tolerance.
Cleaning and putting new grease on can fix some of these, but you can never be sure when a drive dies.

Maybe you could rip the front off a broken 4x and put it onto a newer drive.
... or just have a newer one in stock in case the old one fails.

[Deleted User]

In addition to sdose's faceplate method, a much simpler method would be to keep the 32x drive, and configure it to read/write at 4x speed. The writing part is easy (just configure the burning software for 4x), but I don't know about reading at slower speeds than the drive normally does (DIP switches on the drive maybe?).