Adding DVD

Pentium IV running XP home. Is there any way to add an external drive
for DVD capability, etc.? (Microsoft Flight Simulator needs a DVD
drive.)

On 4/23/2011 11:53 AM, Steve Giannoni wrote:
Pentium IV running XP home. Is there any way to add an external drive
for DVD capability, etc.? (Microsoft Flight Simulator needs a DVD
drive.)

That depends. Does your computer have an available USB2 port? Do you have
$40 or thereabouts to buy one of the ubiquitous drives? (try googling for
'external dvd drive') Are you up to plugging the drive in and possibly
installing a driver? If you can answer yes to all three of these then it
should certainly be possible.

You should know that you will never get top performance from an external.
For most applications I'd suggest that someone with a computer which will
support one install an internal drive which is both cheaper and
better-performing but loads of people who own skinny laptops and netbooks
are getting along with external drives for lightweight applications (no
fast burning of huge data files and the like) so gameplaying will probably
work just fine.

On 4/23/2011 11:30 AM, John McGaw wrote:
On 4/23/2011 11:53 AM, Steve Giannoni wrote:
Pentium IV running XP home. Is there any way to add an external drive
for DVD capability, etc.? (Microsoft Flight Simulator needs a DVD
drive.)

That depends. Does your computer have an available USB2 port? Do you
have $40 or thereabouts to buy one of the ubiquitous drives? (try
googling for 'external dvd drive') Are you up to plugging the drive in
and possibly installing a driver? If you can answer yes to all three of
these then it should certainly be possible.

You should know that you will never get top performance from an
external. For most applications I'd suggest that someone with a computer
which will support one install an internal drive which is both cheaper
and better-performing but loads of people who own skinny laptops and
netbooks are getting along with external drives for lightweight
applications (no fast burning of huge data files and the like) so
gameplaying will probably work just fine.


I concur, and will go a bit further. If we're talking about a desktop
computer, simply replace whatever drive you have with a DVD burner. You
can get them for about $20-30, depending on interface, and it will do
everything you need it to do.

How would I know if the free USB port is USB2 ?

On Sat, 23 Apr 2011 12:30:25 -0400, John McGaw
wrote:

On 4/23/2011 11:53 AM, Steve Giannoni wrote:
Pentium IV running XP home. Is there any way to add an external drive
for DVD capability, etc.? (Microsoft Flight Simulator needs a DVD
drive.)

That depends. Does your computer have an available USB2 port? Do you have
$40 or thereabouts to buy one of the ubiquitous drives? (try googling for
'external dvd drive') Are you up to plugging the drive in and possibly
installing a driver? If you can answer yes to all three of these then it
should certainly be possible.

You should know that you will never get top performance from an external.
For most applications I'd suggest that someone with a computer which will
support one install an internal drive which is both cheaper and
better-performing but loads of people who own skinny laptops and netbooks
are getting along with external drives for lightweight applications (no
fast burning of huge data files and the like) so gameplaying will probably
work just fine.

"Steve Giannoni" wrote in message
...


How would I know if the free USB port is USB2 ?

Go to the Control Panel, Click on the System folder, hardware tab then
Device Manager, and scroll down to look for Universal Serial Bus Contollers.
Expand that selection and look for "Enhanced Host Controller" or USB2
Enhanced Host Controller. If you see it you got it. If you don't see the
word "Enhanced" anywhere you don't have USB 2 on that computer.

--
Jan Alter

Steve Giannoni wrote:
Pentium IV running XP home. Is there any way to add an external drive
for DVD capability, etc.? (Microsoft Flight Simulator needs a DVD
drive.)

I use a USB2 based enclosure for a DVD drive, and it works.

The only time it doesn't work, is if you use really ancient
software, that doesn't know about USB optical drives. For
example, really old versions of Nero, can't find a USB optical
drive. (Nero is for burning CDs or DVDs.)

Another failure scenario, is certain free OS install situations,
will refuse to install from a USB drive. I think out of a stack
of OS installer CDs, two have failed to work from USB. The disc
boots OK, but the installer starts claiming there is "no optical
drive", when the damn software printing the message loaded off
the drive. To deal with those, I had to move the drive from
the enclosure, inside the PC temporarily, to finish the job.
Booting and installing then, was seamless.

So while the external USB2 optical drive will work a lot of the
time, if enough "old" items are involved, it might not be
everything you'd like it to be.

You can put together your own external enclosure. Some brands
of enclosures, seem to have problems with the quality of the
power adapter, which is why you check the reviews for enclosures
before buying them. This one has several interfaces on the back
(you use one interface at a time, not all of them). You can install
a ~$20 SATA optical drive in the enclosure yourself with a screwdriver.
By using a regular 5.25" desktop drive, you get tray style disc loading.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817145064

This is an example of a 5.25" drive mechanism to place in the
enclosure. This is an OEM drive, with no accessories in the box
and no included software. Sometimes, a "retail" drive will
include a copy of Nero so you can burn CDs and DVDs. You
can always use Imgburn as a software instead, which is free
and can be downloaded off the net.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106289

Optical drives would have two interfaces on them, IDE (ribbon cable)
and SATA. IDE ribbon cable is the older standard. Make sure the
drive mechanism, and the enclosure, share the same interface standard
before buying them and engaging your screwdriver.

I use the external enclosure concept, to aid some of my older
systems that still have CD-only drives in them. My enclosure is
IDE, and the drive mechanism is IDE. (External interface is USB2.)
I can also remove the optical drive, and install 3.5" IDE hard drives
in the enclosure. So I have used the enclosure for more than one purpose.

In terms of "boot capability", I have two P4 systems here. The
old system (FSB400 processor) cannot boot from a USB drive of
any sort. (This is a BIOS limitation - it is missing a USB
code module.) But I can still use the enclosure after the system is
booted, as OS detection of USB drives is a separate issue from
how the BIOS works. The other P4 system (FSB800) can boot from the
enclosure, so I can run a Linux LiveCD from the external enclosure.

Pre-built "slim" enclosures exist too, but the mechanism to hold
the disc in place will differ. Tray load discs, you just lower
the disc into the open tray, and the drive takes care of securing it.
Expanding hub style "slim" trays, such as those found in laptops,
rely on the user pushing the disc onto an expanding center hub, and
that secures the disc. There are also "slot load" optical drives,
which seem to operate in more than one orientation, but I've
never used one of those (and wouldn't buy one if they were offered).
I'm a "tray" fan, having had troubles with at least one "expanding hub"
style drive. Some expanding hub style drives, need excessive install
force. The one on my laptop isn't bad, but a previous one I used
was a bear to use (I hated that one).

Another feature I hadn't noticed until recently, is the current optical
drives accept "mini" discs. In my tray mount drives here, there is a
circular indentation the size of a mini disc, and that allows mini discs
to be used. Mini discs typically come with new hardware, like a driver
disc for the hardware. I was expecting trouble, the first time
I used the mini disc, but the drive worked with it with no problems.

As long as USB2 mode is working properly, there should be plenty of
bandwidth for data transfer (USB2 mass storage protocol gives around
30MB/sec or a bit more). When burning DVDs, you may not be
able to get media that goes as high as the entries in the table
here (I see 16x for sale). And various "burn proof" type features,
prevent data underruns if the cable happened to be too slow. I got proof
of this one day, when my computer magically reverted to USB 1.1
mode, and I was burning a DVD dual layer disc at the time. The
predicted completion time for the burn was measured in hours, but
the burner was quite happily running in "stop-start" mode to get
the job done.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvd

Drive speed (Mbit/s) (MB/s) (MiB/s)
1x 10.80 1.35 1.29
....
20x 216.00 27.00 25.75
22x 237.60 29.70 28.32
24x 259.20 32.40 30.90

So if there was actually 24x media available to use, the burn-proof
might cut in if you were burning a disc.

You can check here, to see how proof of USB2 mode can be obtained.

http://www.usbman.com/Guides/checking_for_usb_2.htm

Paul

I've got :

Intel(R) 82801BA/BAM USB Universal Host Controller - 2442
Intel(R) 82801BA/BAM USB Universal Host Controller - 2444
Iomega USB Bus Powered Zip 250
NEC PCI to USB Enhanced Host Controller (B1)
NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller
NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller
USB Root Hub
USB Root Hub
USB Root Hub
USB Root Hub
USB Root Hub

11 items and only one says "Enhanced"

Comments ? ...

On Sat, 23 Apr 2011 14:13:03 -0400, "Jan Alter"
wrote:



"Steve Giannoni" wrote in message
.. .


How would I know if the free USB port is USB2 ?

Go to the Control Panel, Click on the System folder, hardware tab then
Device Manager, and scroll down to look for Universal Serial Bus Contollers.
Expand that selection and look for "Enhanced Host Controller" or USB2
Enhanced Host Controller. If you see it you got it. If you don't see the
word "Enhanced" anywhere you don't have USB 2 on that computer.

On 04/23/2011 02:21 PM, Steve Giannoni wrote:
I've got :

Intel(R) 82801BA/BAM USB Universal Host Controller - 2442
Intel(R) 82801BA/BAM USB Universal Host Controller - 2444
Iomega USB Bus Powered Zip 250
NEC PCI to USB Enhanced Host Controller (B1)
NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller
NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller
USB Root Hub
USB Root Hub
USB Root Hub
USB Root Hub
USB Root Hub

11 items and only one says "Enhanced"

Comments ? ...

On Sat, 23 Apr 2011 14:13:03 -0400, "Jan
wrote:



"Steve wrote in message
...


How would I know if the free USB port is USB2 ?

Go to the Control Panel, Click on the System folder, hardware tab then
Device Manager, and scroll down to look for Universal Serial Bus Contollers.
Expand that selection and look for "Enhanced Host Controller" or USB2
Enhanced Host Controller. If you see it you got it. If you don't see the
word "Enhanced" anywhere you don't have USB 2 on that computer.



You are all set

one of these in the $30+ range should do the job

http://www.newegg.com/store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=420&Tpk=external%20dv d%20drive|dvd%20drive|external%20dvd

Steve Giannoni wrote:

Pentium IV running XP home. Is there any way to add an external drive
for DVD capability, etc.? (Microsoft Flight Simulator needs a DVD drive.)

If your mobo doesn't have USB 2.0 hardware, get a PCI USB 2.0 card
based on either an NEC or VIA brand chip.

Do you have room for an internal DVD drive? PATA (parallel) IDE DVD
drives are harder to find but still available. Newegg sells them for
$30, delivered:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...CE&PageSize=20

If your mobo doesn't have SATA ports, you probably want a PATA DVD
drive because PCI SATA controller cards don't support optical drives
very well at all. Oddly, USB DVD drives seem to work better in this
case.

Steve Giannoni wrote:
I've got :

Intel(R) 82801BA/BAM USB Universal Host Controller - 2442
Intel(R) 82801BA/BAM USB Universal Host Controller - 2444
Iomega USB Bus Powered Zip 250
NEC PCI to USB Enhanced Host Controller (B1)
NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller
NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller
USB Root Hub
USB Root Hub
USB Root Hub
USB Root Hub
USB Root Hub

11 items and only one says "Enhanced"

Comments ? ...

I would agree with Philo. You're good to go.

I would add a small caveat though. Your motherboard is possibly a
"crossover" board. USB2 existed at that time, but it was not
available immediately from Intel. Your Southbridge chip is
ICH2, and USB2 was introduced with ICH4 Southbridge.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I/O_Controller_Hub

To help out, some motherboard manufacturers added the NEC USB2 chip.
This is similar to the situation today, where NEC did the USB3 host,
before it was available on chipsets. Back in the day, a NEC USB2
chip was one of the first to host USB2 ports. A motherboard manufacturer,
wishing to add USB2 to the feature list, would include a NEC
chip on the motherboard, to take up the slack from the missing
feature on the Intel chipset.

When you look at the USB ports on the computer, some will
be connected to the NEC chip, and some will be connected
to the Intel ICH2. For best performance, you'll want to
use the NEC connector. This may be addressed in the documentation
for the computer. (They wouldn't think of actually labeling them.
For today's USB3, the connector color is used as a hint. But back
then, nada.)

A USB 1.1 connection will manage about 1 MB/sec transfer rate.
An external USB2 enclosure on a USB2 connection will manage slightly
better than 30MB/sec (versus the 60MB/sec promised by the bit
rate on the cable, which is never achieved in practice).

It's possible to use a program like UVCView, to evaluate what kind
of connection was negotiated. But it's a pain to find a copy of UVCView,
and a nuisance to describe how to interpret the config data in the right
hand pane. The Device Manager, as far as I know, doesn't show the
present connection speed. But you may get a dialog box presented by
the OS at some point, telling you that additional performance could
be achieved if you connect to a USB2 port. You may have to rely on that,
to distinguish one port from another.

I seem to remember one Asus board, may have mixed a NEC connector
and an Intel connector on the same "stack" on the back of the computer.
So you can't even rely on the stack arrangement, to pair together
"like" things.

Paul


On Sat, 23 Apr 2011 14:13:03 -0400, "Jan Alter"
wrote:


"Steve Giannoni" wrote in message
...


How would I know if the free USB port is USB2 ?
Go to the Control Panel, Click on the System folder, hardware tab then
Device Manager, and scroll down to look for Universal Serial Bus Contollers.
Expand that selection and look for "Enhanced Host Controller" or USB2
Enhanced Host Controller. If you see it you got it. If you don't see the
word "Enhanced" anywhere you don't have USB 2 on that computer.