I'm at wits end with this problem. Note I have searched extensively
and tried numerous proposed solutions, none which have worked. So I am
seeking a workable solution for this problem and it may well be tricky
to find, or just luck of the draw that another researcher may have
experienced and solved this problem. Please do not post as an answer
unless you are very confident of the solution. If a comment should
work, I will be happy to request you post it as an answer.

Here are the symptoms:

I can burn audio CD's with EZCD Creator, Exact Audio Copy and Disc
Copier.

DirectCD (for drag and drop data) can not find a CD burner on my
system.

Trying to burn data CD's from EZCD Creator causes a freeze and a
required reboot to even eject the failed CD from the drive. It will
start to burn, then wind down to 1X recording speed and then freeze
totally. If I do not end the application when EZCD freezes, then after
about 5 minutes it will Blue Screen at Stop 0x00000076.

More details:

Windows 2000, SP3
ASUS P2B motherboard
PII-350
512 MB RAM
Plextor PX-W4824TA Burner
MSI CD-ROM

Latest updated Roxio EZCD Creator package

More:

I have even removed EZCD with the uninstall, then manual registry
removal, then Roxiozap.exe and three different registry cleaners. I
then tried Nero Burning Rom 6 and the same result - audio CD's fine,
but will not burn data. It did not crash as badly as Roxio, but still
would not burn.

The Event Viewer shows 3 errors, or rather a bunch of the same three
errors:

1. ASPI layer not installed

This is interesting as things worked including all SCSI with this
error. It had versions 4.60 of wowpost.exe and winaspi.dll installed.
Updating to 4.71.2 did not change these two files, but added
aspi32.sys an winaspi32.dll. It now reports ASPI working fine (even in
view hidden in Device manager) BUT, Nero CDSPeed and CDDAE, which both
worked fine and should not be a conflict with EZCD or NERO as they are
rather green utilities that do not burn or write to the registry, now
report no CD-ROMS installed. BOTH drives show and show as working in
Device Manager and Windows Explorer. This update of ASPI had no effect
on either EZCD or Nero. It did stop the Event Viewer ASPI error. I
would like CDSPEED and CDDAE back.

2. There are tons of Event ID 9 errors in Event Viewer when this
fails. A lesser amount of Event ID 11. They report:

ID 9

Event Type:	Error
Event Source:	atapi
Event Category:	None
Event ID:	9
Date:		11/2/2003
Time:		11:11:14 AM
User:		N/A
Computer:	DESKTOP
Description:
The device, \Device\Ide\IdePort0, did not respond within the timeout
period.
Data:
0000: 0f 00 10 00 01 00 64 00   ......d.
0008: 00 00 00 00 09 00 04 c0   .......À
0010: 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0018: fa 4b 01 00 00 00 00 00   úK......
0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0028: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0030: 00 00 00 00 07 00 00 00   ........


ID 11

Event Type:	Error
Event Source:	atapi
Event Category:	None
Event ID:	11
Date:		11/2/2003
Time:		11:10:35 AM
User:		N/A
Computer:	DESKTOP
Description:
The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Ide\IdePort0. 
Data:
0000: 0f 06 10 00 01 00 64 00   ......d.
0008: 00 00 00 00 0b 00 04 c0   .......À
0010: 01 00 00 80 00 00 00 00   ...?....
0018: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0028: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0030: 00 00 00 00 05 00 00 00   ........

I have replaced the IDE cable, made sure of Master and Slave settings,
made sure that each of the CD drives are on different IDE controllers.

I have upgraded Windows Media Player 7.1 to 9.0 and I have no Adaptec
Shared Files from this upgrade or left over fom 7.1, which I
understand can be a problem with DirectCD.

I have searched MS Knowledgebase including
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;154690&Product=win2000
in particular. I have read HUNDREDS of posts at Roxio trying to solve
at least the Direct CD problem as well as event errors and tried
numerous of their suggestions. No good.

Plextor suggested updating the EIDE controller driver. But these are
from the operating system and I can not locate updated drivers either
at the mother board site (ASUS P2B) or MS. DMA is on on all channels
and turning to PIO only slows things down.

The current driver is 5.0.2183.1, 11/14/1999 atapi.sys and
storprop.dll. Searching for an updated driver from Device Manager
brings up two more choices, but neither recommended by the OS:
Standard IDE/ESDI Hard Disk Controller and Acculogic IDE Controller. I
have not tried either and unless confident this would be helpful,
would hate to try and lose more functionality than I am already
missing. I am also loathe to try SP4 as there are way too many horror
stories on that Service Pack. I would think that IF that would fix
this, there would be a hotfix for just the EIDE controller available.

I **think** that covers it. Happy to reply to RFQ's. Note I have done
MANY installs, uninstalls, from both ADMIN and My User Account. Best
clue I have is the Event ID errors.

Anyone have ideas??

Thanks!

-=clouseau=-

Hi Clouseau...

Very frustrating. You noted your system is "PII-350", so the
comment on the MS link you gave raised an eyebrow for me:
"NOTE: The reason that drives tend to have these types of
 problems under heavy stress is often slow microprocessors.
 In a multitasking environment, the processor may not be fast
 enough to process all the I/O commands that come in nearly
 simultaneously."

As for SP4, I've had it for quite some time, and have never
had any problems whatsoever, so I'd rethink that piece.

sublime1-ga

Oh...here's a post I found interesting:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eac/message/9201?source=1

Hello Sublime1,

Couple of thoughts:

Everything really flies on this machine regardless of the processor.
Plus, I never multitask when burning. It DOES burn audio CD's just
fine, but not data. I have been racking my brain today trying to
figure out when I last succesfully burned a data CD and it was on
WIN2K on this machine (since I had copied the SP3 upgrade to a data
CD) but with an older HP burner and older version of Roxio.

I don't think its hardware. Gotta be drivers, but maybe not.

I'll try Nero's winaspi, but fact is I could burn audio and data
previously with NO aspi layer, so I tend to doubt it. But it is
interesting.

Also, NERO 6 which includes this * I believe* would not burn data for
me when I had it installed.

More clues if I find them.

Thanks!

-=clouseau=-

a) You said:
----
1. ASPI layer not installed 
 
This is interesting as things worked including all SCSI with this
error.
----

I thought this was an IDE drive? If not, I am fairly sure (but not
positive without checking it out) that the ASPI layer is only for
emulating SCSI on IDE drives (which is necessary for CD-writing
purposes.)

b) I assume you've tried a variety of speeds with the same results,
correct?

c) How did the Nero trials work out? I am a longstanding believer in
Nero's products, though I have some distrust for the latest version.
(Possibly because I am on a Linux machine myself now and thus have
little positive experience with it.)

Sublime1:

Interestingly, substituting the Nero wnaspi32.dll for the Adaptec
version allows the Nero CDSpeed and CDDAE utilities to run again. And
it reports ASPI installed properly. Unfortunately, still can not burn.

For a further clue, I decided to try and stop making coasters with
this problem. Doing a "TEST" burn fails the same way as a real burn.
Starts, then winds down from high speed to 1X and freezes.

Bookface:

Audio CD's burn with or without an ASPI layer installed. Data will not
burn regardless. Yes, it is an IDE drive.

Tried all speeds. Will not burn even at 1x for Data, but will burn at
48X for audio.

Nero was exactly the same as Roxio: would burn audio and fail at data.

Lastly, if I have not mentioned, I WAS able to burn DATA through EZCD
(older version) and HP (older slow burner) several months ago on WIn
2K on this machine. So **maybe** it is somehow a Plextor problem. I
still think the key is the ATAPI Event ID's.

-=clouseau=-

PS, will call Microsoft and Plextor and ASUS today. Will, of course,
post if any progress occurs.

Ok, learned a bit today. The Plextor tech that suggested new IDE
drivers knew not of what he spoke. There are ONLY the OS drivers for
the IDE channels and they were not the problem.

Finally found a great tech that taught me a self test routine where
the jumpers are changed, IDE cable removed and powered on while
holding the eject button. It failed the test. I subbed in an older HP
CD-RW and bingo, burning DATA again with no events. So it was a
hardware problem cleverly disguised as a driver problem.

Thanks for your ideas. I will expire this question now.

-=clouseau=-