NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/comp/sys/next/hardware/3144

Internet Message Format | 1993-01-01 | 1.8 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!torn!news.ccs.queensu.ca!qucdn!harrapr
Organization: Queen's University at Kingston
Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 09:59:51 EST
From: <[e-mail]>
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.hardware
Subject: Re: NEC-Intersect CD-ROM drive.....
Lines: 31

I posted a query a few days ago about the NEC Intersect CD-ROM drive
for the Mac - I wanted to use one on the NeXT. Well, having recieved
no comments except for requests for followups, I bit the bullet and
picked one up (technically the drive is the CD-36 or CDR-36, I think).

I hooked it up to my NeXT, gave it a unique SCSI address, and did a
manual boot to see what was going on. Many, many scsi access errors,
that's what. I tried several id's, tried starting with a disk in,
with no disk in, and so on. The NeXT just ignored the drive, after
initially finding a bunch of errors with it. I strongly suspect that
while this drive uses a SCSI interface on the MAC, it isn't a generic
SCSI device (one clue is that on the box there is a list of alternative
interfaces, one of the others being SCSI-Parallel, whatever that means).

Another possible problem is that this drive doesn't use eject/load, but
instead has a trap door for loading and unloading. Perhaps the NeXT can't
accept drives that don't firmly load and unload? I don't know anything
about hardware (that much is obvious? :<) ), so I'm taking the drive back.

I would appreciate information on a tested CD-ROM drive that is reasonably
inexpensive. Tested on the NeXT, obiously. And no, the PLI is not reasonably
inexpensive at $675 US (about $900 here in the land of perpetual snows).

Thanks in advance,


Rob Harrap
Dept. Geological Sciences
Queen's University
Kingston, Ont.
[e-mail]