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CD/DVD drive for retro usage

after googling a bit, your problem has something to do with the error correction algorithm in windows 7

on the cd there is an error correction byte after every few bytes, and usually a large chunk of error correction after every 2048 bytes again.

maybe this will be wrong what i am writing here: the DOS cd rom drivers will not implement any error correction, they will rely on the cd/dvd drives firmware to do it for you, and the DOS drivers (and probably early windows drivers, and every naive implementation) will also rely on the firmware as the drivers will PROBABLY use the legacy commands to get the data.

newer windows and linux will probably read the raw data and do the error correction itself, which in your case, fails.

its hard to decide if your discs are damaged but your drives mistakenly think the data is correct, OR the error correction in the windows is buggy.. maybe windows does not really tries to restore the information based on the checksum information, just throws an error if there are too much errors.
 
I know the discs aren't damaged; I made a few over a period of a couple of years and they're all treated identically.

I should probably dump the raw data using Linux (yes, that awful OS :) ) and have a look at the first few sectors. Betcha that there's an incompatibility there. Right now, it doesn't matter much, as I know how to deal with them.
 
more info on LG GCE-8400B (40x12x40x)
RESULTS: PARTIALLY USABLE FOR RETRO, BUT ONLY AS A BURNER
lg-gce-8400b.jpg


Previously i have failed to test this burner properly, so i have attempted to use the drive in a different computer.
In this, the k3b was not crashing any more, so i was able to do some burning tests.

The drive is large and heavy, similarly to other LG burners from this era. It has two led. I was assuming that it will lit up in green if the drive reads, and in red, if it burns, but that was not the case. The eject button feels a bit flaky, but it has no problems, just feels like that.

It seems the loud grinding noises are the resulf ot a bad screw or something, which makes the drive noisy even at low RPM. Despite of this, the drive is still too loud and fast...
I will take it apart, and check what is causing this resonance, maybe just a broken plastic piece somewhere.

logic of lg:
lets make the write led GREEN
and lets make the read led RED
Genius! no.

CD-RW compatibility:
The drive offers 1x, 2x, 4x, and 8x burn speeds for vintage CD-RW. The 1x and 2x speeds are a lie, if you choose it, it burns the disc at 4x anyway.
And the 4x speed is actually 3x The drive can bring back vintage CD-RW discs to live at 4x. This makes it a better alternative than the later LG CD burners (which cant burn RW discs with a speed below 8x).

As a reader, it spins the vintage CD-RW at 40x, which is problematic for those old heavy discs! When ejecting the drive, it takes about 6-7 seconds to fully stop the spinning of the disc. I dont know what LG was thinking when it allowed so large spin speeds for RW discs. Insanity.


CD-R compatibility:
When burning a CD-R, the burner offers 1x, 2x, 4x, 8x, 16x and 32x. Despite of this is a 40x burner on paper, there are no 40x burning speeds available, at least for the discs i have tested. The 1x and 2x speed if of course a lie, and it will not be able to burn at that speed. I dont know what is the minimal burning speed for normal CD-R, 4x or 8x.

CD-R readibility:
The drive spins the CD-R discs too fast, but it can read discs sometimes even if other burners cant.

Lack of firmware:
LG webpage has no firmware for this burner. Google offers two firmware from questionable sources, which i will not try in this drive.

Basically the best user case of this drive is to burn data to vintage CD-RW discs, as this drive even reviewed some discs i was thinking they are dead long time ago.

Longevity:
The drive produced no failures in the past 17 years, it needs absolutely no maintenance.
 
lg gce 8400b internals

PtCodI5.jpg

head is very heavy design. the seeking is relatively slow.

WY0OPjz.jpg

but the design is already cheap-ass cav style, suspicious lack of some components

E89B7GA.jpg

the drive originally had 3 front led. the third was probably for cd present led. it got removed, because lg tought they will earn 10 more cents on the drive like this.

This drive is from 2003 and this is indeed the era when manufacturers tought that the quality of CD burners does not matter any more at all.
 
Model: Creative CR 58 24x CD-ROM drive
Results: Crappy vintage drive
s-l300.jpg
This vintage 24x IDE CD-ROM drive from Creative indeed looks very Creative! Its heavy, it has cute yellow stickers on it all the way, and it has a little window on the top to see if the drive is spinning. The drive has a nice amber light. However, this was all the positives about this drive.

-Its LOUD: Does not matter what you do or how you screw it, the drive makes strange resonations when it rotates the disc. Sometiimes the drive is extremely loud, like a little chernobyl for cd drives. Older the disc you put in, louder the vibrations will be, it sounds like those super flaky 52x drives, but it indeed a 24x drive.

-CD-ROM read performance: about 2.5 MByte/sec max. Sometimes the drive switches back to 300-500 kbyte/sec read for no reason, and keeps that read speed - sometimes reads the same disc on full speed.

-The drive identifies as a MATSHITA CR 585, Creative just put its sticker on it, they didnt even bothered to edit the device name in the firmware.

-The drive also makes very loud head focusing noises.

The mechanics was obviously never meant to be faster than 4x-8x (~2400 RPM), but for some reason Panasonic thought it will be a good idea to use 24x speed (4800 RPM) but they forgot to properly redesign the mechanics for that.

The drive is from 1997 and its very heavy, if it would not be this extremely loud, i could recommend it to be used as a retro drive, but otherwise i recommend to avoid it.
 
I have the MATSUSHITA CR-585 which is the same as that Creative drive and like most drives the firmware is designed to give good results in benchmarks. This is the reason it is so loud. Use software to limit the speed to 12x and you'll find it's actually great for "vintage" use. I got mine in 1997 and it still works.
 
Krille, its loud even when its just barely spinning the disc. I suspect something to be lose in the drive (by design). Sadly i cant spend unlimited time on the drives, so i dont know when i will have time to check it, but i will take it apart and see whats going on.
 
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