A computer components & hardware forum. HardwareBanter

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Go Back   Home » HardwareBanter forum » System Manufacturers & Vendors » Compaq Computers
Site Map Home Register Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

Sony CRX100E/X2 External USB CD-RW Drive



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old August 1st 05, 05:41 PM
Steve
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Sony CRX100E/X2 External USB CD-RW Drive

I have a Sony CRX100E/X2 External USB CD-RW Drive that I have not used
in some time. Recently I chose to give that hardware to an out of the
country friend that needed a CD burner. The problem was that I could
not find the original Spressa software that came with that CD-RW drive.


When I started trying to locate software for the drive, I contacted the
Sony online support for the Spressa software and the CRX100E/X2 drive.
They told me that the Spressa software that the software I needed is no
longer available at Sony's support site and that the latest software
would not work for the drive that I had. (It is for Windows 98, which
my friend is also using.) They went on to explain that there is a Win
driver online for the burner (Which I downloaded)

I later found a CD that I had made as a backup of the Spressa software.
Unfortunately when the drive and software were received by my friend,
the software could not be read from the CD. I don't know if the CD was
exposed to X-rays or something as part of the increased security in the
mail, or what really happened. In any case, the CD can not even be
read, and she gets a message that the CD drive on her computer "is not
ready". (The CD drive on her computer can read other CDs with no
problem.) I tried having her load the driver to see if it detected the
CD-RW, but it did not seem to detect the drive. (I had not used the
drive in a while, but the last time I used it, it worked fine.)

The Sony support site said that the drive would work with other burner
software, although I had tried that previously and it did not work. I
imagine that the problem was that the initial software had the drivers
built in and the drivers required were included in the burner software
that I tried before.

My questions a
1. Have others encountered problems with the Sony CRX100E/X2 External
USB CD-RW Drive and the driver that Sony has provided on their site?

2. Any ideas of what could be going wrong or what she should try to get
this to work?

3. She is living on a fixed income so resources are limited. Is there
any free software for burning CDs that would work with the Sony
CRX100E/X2 External USB CD-RW Drive ? She uses Windows Media Player and
I thought it would burn CDs, but I am not sure. Of course it seems the
"first problem" is the failure of the Sony driver to work.

Any ideas and help sure would be appreciated!

Steve Byers



  #2  
Old August 1st 05, 05:53 PM
Ben Myers
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Have your friend download a copy of either CDBurnerXPPro or Burn4Free, both very
servicable CD burners. They may not have all the bells and whistles of the
commercial products, but they are serviceable for most burning tasks.

.... Ben Myers

On 1 Aug 2005 09:41:08 -0700, "Steve" wrote:

I have a Sony CRX100E/X2 External USB CD-RW Drive that I have not used
in some time. Recently I chose to give that hardware to an out of the
country friend that needed a CD burner. The problem was that I could
not find the original Spressa software that came with that CD-RW drive.


When I started trying to locate software for the drive, I contacted the
Sony online support for the Spressa software and the CRX100E/X2 drive.
They told me that the Spressa software that the software I needed is no
longer available at Sony's support site and that the latest software
would not work for the drive that I had. (It is for Windows 98, which
my friend is also using.) They went on to explain that there is a Win
driver online for the burner (Which I downloaded)

I later found a CD that I had made as a backup of the Spressa software.
Unfortunately when the drive and software were received by my friend,
the software could not be read from the CD. I don't know if the CD was
exposed to X-rays or something as part of the increased security in the
mail, or what really happened. In any case, the CD can not even be
read, and she gets a message that the CD drive on her computer "is not
ready". (The CD drive on her computer can read other CDs with no
problem.) I tried having her load the driver to see if it detected the
CD-RW, but it did not seem to detect the drive. (I had not used the
drive in a while, but the last time I used it, it worked fine.)

The Sony support site said that the drive would work with other burner
software, although I had tried that previously and it did not work. I
imagine that the problem was that the initial software had the drivers
built in and the drivers required were included in the burner software
that I tried before.

My questions a
1. Have others encountered problems with the Sony CRX100E/X2 External
USB CD-RW Drive and the driver that Sony has provided on their site?

2. Any ideas of what could be going wrong or what she should try to get
this to work?

3. She is living on a fixed income so resources are limited. Is there
any free software for burning CDs that would work with the Sony
CRX100E/X2 External USB CD-RW Drive ? She uses Windows Media Player and
I thought it would burn CDs, but I am not sure. Of course it seems the
"first problem" is the failure of the Sony driver to work.

Any ideas and help sure would be appreciated!

Steve Byers




  #3  
Old August 1st 05, 11:15 PM
Steve
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Thanks for the information Ben! One more question, how can we determine
if that Sony Driver is actually loading?

Thanks!

Steve

  #4  
Old August 1st 05, 11:48 PM
Ben Myers
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

If the system to which the Sony CRX100E/X2 External USB CD-RW Drive is attached
is running WIndows 2000 or XP, the basic drivers are built into the operating
system to allow the drive to function as a plain CD-ROM. If it installs
properly, it will be visible as a device in the Device Manager within the System
icon of Control Panel.

The software that makes the drive function as a CD-RW is the aforementioned
software, or a commercial product like Nero, Roxio, etc... Ben Myers

On 1 Aug 2005 15:15:06 -0700, "Steve" wrote:

Thanks for the information Ben! One more question, how can we determine
if that Sony Driver is actually loading?

Thanks!

Steve


  #5  
Old August 20th 05, 07:03 PM
Steve
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Hi Again!

Sorry for the delay, but my friend has been sick. Her system runs
Windows 98SE. I found a driver on the Sony support page, and she "tried
to load it" but can not tell if it did load. How can she load it in
Windows 98SE?

I think she just clicked on the driver file, but there has got to be
more to it. She was trying to run a CD that I thought had a back up of
the original Sony CDRW software (Spressa) on it, but she said it would
not recognize the drive. So, that may have been corrupted in mailing it
to Canada.

Sorry to be so "blank" on all of this!

Thanks!

Steve

  #6  
Old August 20th 05, 07:47 PM
Ben Myers
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

NO drivers are required for an INTERNAL CD-RW drive to function as a basic
CD-ROM drive. It is automatically recognized during the installation of Windows
98 or any later version of Windows.

You're right. A device driver IS required for an external USB drive. Download
and install the proper driver from the following URL.

http://sony.storagesupport.com/cdrw/usb.htm

There is also a drive firmware upgrade for this model, and it appears to be
important for Windows 98:

http://sony.storagesupport.com/cdrw/firmware.htm

Go to Control Panel, click on the System icon, and look at the device drivers
installed. If a device driver is installed for the Sony CRX100E, you will see
the device identified in the list, under CD-ROM drives, of course.

If the drive is visible in the list of devices, then CDBurnerXPPro or Burn4Free
will do the job. Forget the Spressa software. It is often customized to work
with either very specific models of CD-RW drives or with specific makes and
models of computers.

If the drive is not visible in the list of devices, you have another problem on
your hands... Ben Myers

On 20 Aug 2005 11:03:52 -0700, "Steve" wrote:

Hi Again!

Sorry for the delay, but my friend has been sick. Her system runs
Windows 98SE. I found a driver on the Sony support page, and she "tried
to load it" but can not tell if it did load. How can she load it in
Windows 98SE?

I think she just clicked on the driver file, but there has got to be
more to it. She was trying to run a CD that I thought had a back up of
the original Sony CDRW software (Spressa) on it, but she said it would
not recognize the drive. So, that may have been corrupted in mailing it
to Canada.

Sorry to be so "blank" on all of this!

Thanks!

Steve


  #7  
Old August 21st 05, 05:05 PM
Steve
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Thanks Ben for the reply and the information. It is an External Drive,
so I will need the Sony Driver. I think what she did before was to
simply click on the driver file (CRX100E2.EXE), but if I remember
correctly it should be copied to the C:\Windows folder and added to the
Config.sys statement using something like this:

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\CRX100E2.EXE

Correct?

I will download the firmware upgrade and send it to her.

She downloaded Burn4Free software, so maybe this drawn out process is
nearing an end! LOL

Thanks for all the information.

Steve

  #8  
Old August 21st 05, 06:03 PM
Ben Myers
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

It is highly, highly doubtful that the Sony driver would be used via CONFIG.SYS
as you have suggested: DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\CRX100E2.EXE . Very few hardware
manufacturers have made any effort to support USB devices with DOS-mode files
and DOS-mode access.

Carefully read any and all documentation for the Sony driver and install it
exactly as described. It is probably a self-unzipping program which places the
Sony device driver files in the right place, either the WINDOWS folder or a
folder subsidiary to the Windows folder... Ben Myers

On 21 Aug 2005 09:05:14 -0700, "Steve" wrote:

Thanks Ben for the reply and the information. It is an External Drive,
so I will need the Sony Driver. I think what she did before was to
simply click on the driver file (CRX100E2.EXE), but if I remember
correctly it should be copied to the C:\Windows folder and added to the
Config.sys statement using something like this:

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\CRX100E2.EXE

Correct?

I will download the firmware upgrade and send it to her.

She downloaded Burn4Free software, so maybe this drawn out process is
nearing an end! LOL

Thanks for all the information.

Steve


  #9  
Old August 21st 05, 08:35 PM
Steve
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Hi Ben,

I thought the driver download would include some documentation but it
does not. Nothing seems to happen when you run the .exe program, and no
driver shows up in the Device Manager. I am baffled.

  #10  
Old August 21st 05, 10:29 PM
Nicholas D Richards
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

In article .com,
Steve writes
Hi Ben,

I thought the driver download would include some documentation but it
does not. Nothing seems to happen when you run the .exe program, and no
driver shows up in the Device Manager. I am baffled.


The .exe program is a DOS self-extracting program that extracts the
drivers into the same folder as the .exe file.

There is a crx100e2.doc file which explains how to install the drivers.
Unfortunately, as you will see when you look at the document, it makes
some assumptions.

Assuming that you have the CDRW connected, you should be able to install
the drivers using the 'Add New Hardware' wizard in the Control Panel.

Unfortunately it is years since I ran a Windows 98 PC so I cannot give
you the full sequence of instructions. You basically will add from a
specific location, have a disk and display a full list of drivers from a
specific location.

A few other thoughts:

- have you checked that USB is enabled in the BIOS settings? Have
you had other USB devices running successfully.

- I assume that the drive has its own power supply, if not total
USB power usage must not exceed 500 milliamps, and your PSU in the base
unit must be able to supply the extra power.
--
Nicholas David Richards -

"Oł sont les neiges d'antan?"
 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
FS printers/parts trays, printheads -- oki fujitsu dl3700 dl3800 hp genicom epson ibm dec jetdirect laserjet lexmark qms okidata microline 320 ml320 393 tally printronix tektronix qms toshiba zebra otc ibm intermec 7755 boul st laurent montreal ca cisco Printers 2 May 22nd 05 02:05 AM
Primary Hard Disk Drive 1 Not Found brandon General Hardware 5 July 18th 04 11:39 PM
How to install 2nd HDD with Partition Magic 6.0 partitions under Windows ME? Phred Dell Computers 13 February 18th 04 09:45 AM
Need *HELP* retrieving data off failed hard drive - sources of info greatly appreciated Stellijer Storage (alternative) 36 December 19th 03 08:53 PM
Help With Locked Hard Drive Louis Bybee Storage (alternative) 29 November 22nd 03 04:01 PM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 02:41 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 HardwareBanter.
The comments are property of their posters.