#Snd BL CD ROM-Satisfied?
4 messages in this thread
Hi, I'm Larry and I'm new to this forum. I have joined in the hopes that I
could talk to other people about their experiences in using the Creative
Labs Sound Blaster Pro card and the matching Matsushita model CR-521 CD
ROM. I own a Gateway 2000 386/33 with a Sound Blaster Pro installed so I
have been thinking about buying the CR-521 CD ROM drive that will use the
sound cards SCSI interface. According to the only reiew that I have been
able to read the Matsushita is a well built drive with a decent throughput
rate of 170 kb/s and although the access time is a little slow (390ms),
sells for an excellent price of around $360 with bundled software. In
reading some of the messages on this forum I have been able to determine
that whats hot are the NEC 73m and 83m but for a substantially higher
price. I suppose that if I did not already have the Sound Blaster Pro
installed I would be considering the NEC/Audio Spectrum package, but since
I do I sure would like to hear from anyone that is using the Creative Labs
package. I realize that a lot of these questions I must answer for myself
but if you are using and enjoying (?) this CD ROM drive your imput sure
would be appreciated, thanks, Larry.
Hi, Larry;
I have the bundle you are looking at, and when everything works, it's
great. I haven't been able to pin down my problem source yet, but it seems
to be some kind of IRQ/DMA/Address conflict. My biggest problem is not
being able to get through to Creative Labs for any Support.
I have noticed a LOT of people NOT having similar problems, so I think it's
in my system somewhere. I have also noticed people having problems with
other drives, so it's not much to judge by. My main point would be that I
have no problems with the unit's capabilities. They seem more than
adequate for what I can find to use it with. Don't go strictly by price
for the purchase though. You may want to consider the particular vendor's
support capabilities.
I have also heard unofficial rumors that there will be a new SBPro soon
with 16-bit audio and a standard(?) SCSI interface. Personally, I don't
believe in waiting for rumors to become reality. It usually takes a long
time and costs a fortune!<g>
Hope that helps you. If you have any specific questions, just ask.
John
Hi John, Thanks for the information. When I installed my SB Pro I was
having difficulty in running Dr. Sbaitso and as it turned out it was
because of how poorly the Ceative Labs reference manual is written. I
called their tech number first thing one morning and talked to a fellow
that really did not know very much beyond the canned procedures. He did
however refer me to a couple of guys that really did seem to know what was
going on. In the conversation I discovered that Dr. Sbaitso automatically
loaded the TSR SBTalker and according to the manual I needed to do this,
which resulted in a crash. My point is that you might try calling first
thing in the morning and if you do get through and your persistent enough
you will get someone that really can supply you with some answers.
Incidently, I did change the IRQ from 7 to 5 even though I have been told
that this is not necessary. I did have a printer conflict and this
corrected the problem.
If I do buy the Creative Labs CD ROM the people at Zero's and One's, the
mail order house I will buy it from say that they have sold several of
these units and can provide most of the tech support that I might need.
They also tell me that most of their customers have been very happy with
this system. So in general other than the problem you are having you are
happy with the speed and for lack of a better word smoothness with which
the unit loads software? I will be using it for educational purposes such
as encyclopedias, etc. and gaming. Once again thanks for the info, Larry.