Memorex USB CD-RW crashing Mac

Fand

I'm trying to get a Memorex USB CD-RW to work on my G3 Powerbook, but it keeps crashing the computer.

Every time I plug it in, it freezes the computer, and if I crash it out to restart with the ol' three-finger salute (cmd-ctrl-pwr) it won't get past the part of the restart before it starts loading extensions. In fact I have to unplug, take the battery out and press the Power Manager button, then leave it to think about things for half an hour before restarting.

I bought it in Compustore, who denied that they stocked any such thing when I rang back to ask for help...

They have Iomega USB CD-RWs, but a lot slower.

Any recommendations, please?

Someone in IT Direct told me that it was pointless gettting a fast USB CD-RW anyway, because USB is limited in its speed, and won't actually write at the 4x4x20 type speeds this drive claims. Is this correct? He certainly seemed to know what he was talking about.

WhiteWashMan

umcant remember off hand exactly how fast usb is.
is its suppose to be either 4 mg or 12 mg a second.
12 mg could be firewire....
anyway, compare that to traditional methods or writing or copying.
x4 means it will transmit/write/read etc at 4 times the speed of a cd-r. traditionally 150k/s. so i would say that your usb is probably a hell of a lot faster, its the cd-r that is the slow part here.
of course, i could be talking a complete load of bolloxs.

with regard to the cd-r not working.
i assume you have installed all software and drivers before even attempting to plug your usb device in?
if not, you should you naughty boy.

what exactly have you done so far to try and install the device?

Fand

What have I done:

1) inserted the CD from Memorex into my Powerbook's own CD-ROM/DVD drive. It appeared to have no drivers, only Toast 4 (CD writing software).

2) inserted the USB cable in the USB port. The computer froze.

3) Restarted, crashed, restarted, crashed, restarted, crashed, restarted, crashed, restarted, crashed, used some bad language, restarted, crashed.

4) Removed the USB cable, the power cord and the battery, pressed the Power Manager button, went off and had a calming cup of tea, reinserted power cord and battery but not USB device, and restarted; let the computer run its ouch-ouch-you-hurt-me software, rebuilt the desktop, reset the time from 2040 back to 2001

* Happy computer day: it's 1.10.01 today (and all this was happening around 1.01)

and then reinserted the USB cord. The computer froze again.

5) repeated steps 3 and 4, installed Toast 5, rather than Toast 4, restarted, put in the USB cable again, computer froze again.

The order of steps may be a little out, but that's roughly it. Any advice accepted gratefully.

Fand

Oh, and before you ask:

Powerbook G3 with Pismo chip, Firewire and bronze keyboard; OS9.0.4; 384MB RAM; 10GB hard drive, running mainly Eudora Pro 5.0, Office 98 for Mac, Internet Explorer 5.5, Quark and Photoshop.

WhiteWashMan

Originally posted by Fand
Oh, and before you ask:

Powerbook G3 with Pismo chip, Firewire and bronze keyboard; OS9.0.4; 384MB RAM; 10GB hard drive, running mainly Eudora Pro 5.0, Office 98 for Mac, Internet Explorer 5.5, Quark and Photoshop.

and have you installed your scanning software?
my advice is to
a)install anything that came with drive
b)go to web site and d/l whatever drivers apps you can find assocciated with drive.
c)plug in usb connector only when all this done and it should then pick up your usb stuff and install the drivers automatically.

have you ever used usb on that machine before?
you can try and install on another machine. it may be your laptop that is the problem.

Fand

I use several USB devices successfully on the Powerbook laptop, and also on the horrible virus-ridden PC which I can['t use much at the moment. I tried installing the Memorex drive on the PC and it wouldn't find the software on its own CD.

So I'm going to take it back tomorrow and swap it for an Iomega drive, and hope that works better.

Hobbes

Some items (like scanners) need more power then usual to go over the USB port.

I had a similar issue with a device (I forget what) and I bought a 4 port USB with powersupply to feed the extra power to the port.

Might be that?