Polaroid BurMAX24 CD-RW compatability 5

[grapeape]

I have installed a new Burnmax cd-rw in a generic PC running win98 SE. It works fine as a cd-rom, but I am unable to find a utility that will recognize it as a compatable writer. Polaroid seems to be unaware that they even make a CD writer (at least from searching their website). Does anyone know if it is possible to have this drive recognized by a common burn utility (ie Nero, Easy CD)?

 

[bmws1]

I bought a burnmax 48. Installed it in three different systems. First a generic W2000 PC -- OS wouldn't recognize the drive. Later found that installing the NTI software AND the update before installing the drive makes it painless. Also, a power-down reboot after software install seems necessary. No problem with W98 desktop PC.

Moved the drive to an external IDE-to-USB kit. Now use it with all machines to flawlessly burn at 40x (can't get 48x), including a 550MHz W2000 laptop.

So for me this burner has been a great buy -- if the rebate comes!

 

[JohnnyDrako]

Incredible. I found this number: 626-968-6200 and got a live human being. Told him the darned thing worked for about 10 CDs and then nothing. Image file is created, burn process goes fine, system says CD was burned but -- alas! -- the CD is blank. told him I installed Nero also just to be sure it wasn't the much-maligned software.

1) In Nero, he asked me to go into Recorder > Choose Recorder. Told him what I saw was simply Device=Image Recorder and Adapter=Virtual Device.

2) He asked me to check out that the drive is visible via My Computer (it is, although the label simply says "Compact Disc (E".)

Based on these two items he told me the drive is broken. So now I have to uninstall the darned thing (how do I do this?), return it to the shop I bought it from in another state and then deal with trying to get compensation for the amount I put out to have the darned thing installed.

What a piece of C#@P!

 

[suemccartin]

just bought a polaroid burn max 48 on ebay. I got it because it's one of the drives clone cd says does raw sao/dao and em encoding correctly. Sheesh after reading this I see why it doesn't seem to be sold anymore. Anyone know the latest firmware version on the drive and how to get it?

 

[Marmar63]

I returned my 32xMAX POlaroid also. Tried to get a 2nd one, same problem with it. I got store credit and got a set of headphones. I've gotten better results with them than the burner.

 

[suemccartin]

My 48 max came in the mail today, firmware 1.04. I've made a vcd and duped a audio cd (read and write with the polaroid) the vcd works great, the audio cd works almost 100 percent in my picky old cd jukebox that isn't designed for cdr's. It plays all the tracks but two you have to hit play more than once, same audio cd works fine on my cd reader--I personally think it's my 16x rated media and not the drive (clone cd wrote full tilt on that old media). I'm still looking for info on the latest firmware, anyone know if they're posted anyplace on a website? Thanks.

 

[JohnnyDrako]

Just curious, Sue: why are you attached to the firmware (vs. Nero or some other)?

 

[BabyeyesJ]

I also bought the Polaroid BurnMAX 24 with the NTI software. I used it for several months with no probs. Then one day i went to burn a cd and seen that it wasnt working. I email Polaroid tech support about it and they had me download the nero software and now it works just fine. Hopefully it will continue to work fine.

 

[suemccartin]

in reply to JohnnyDrako, I'm looking for firmware because I believe in having it "just in case" I've had a couple of burners that did little things like cause windows to hang on the way to shutdown.

If anyone cares, the latest for the 48x is apparently 1.04g, I have it in case anyone needs it--the company answered my email within a few days. They attached two versions, it sounds like more than one company made those drives (the other updater was for aopen). Fingers are crossed but so far I'm having zero problems with the drive, I burn about two or three times a week under xp professional using the utility that came with my pinnacle pctv tv card that has digital vcr functions. I have the latest nero burning software and it works with the latest clone cd as well.

 

[ragtopintn]

I bought the Burnmax 48x in January and use Roxio Platinum sw that I already had and updated it to the latest version and have had no problems. I have it as a slave to the dvd drive. Yes, I get an occasional coaster, but the media may be teh cause (I have a few no-name disks, some work, some don't) For 20 bucks I can't complain at all.

 

[geokun]

This is in reply to suemccartin ---
You said that "the latest for the 48x is apparently 1.04g, I have it in case anyone needs it"

Yes I need it.

Please contact me at george__clark@hotmail.com (double underline between the names.

Thanks

George

 

[isepiq]

On some other forums where the hard-core cd-freaks are, I read tons of bad news about the built in Windows XP burning software, and the Roxio Easy CD software. I got the picture real fast that none of the Pro's use them. First thing they do is disable the XP burning software. One of the top of the line proggies (Clone CD I think?) warns that they will NOT give any support to anyone that has installed Easy CD software, period!
Cause of this I have never installed anything other than Nero Burning Rom and Clone CD. No coasters, no problems EVER. Just a thought. Been studying this stuff for over a year now and these are just my personal conclusions.

IMHO
isepiq

 

[suemccartin]

In response to isepiq
Yeah, like you I've heard all about how bad easy cd creator is and how many problems it supposedly causes. I had a problem with my Phillips 24X cdrw 2412 under clone cd and that was their first comment; that I must certainly have someone else's crappy software loaded on my system and their clone cd was completely perfect and could never be the cause of the garbled audio extractions I was getting when I used the Phillips drive to read and write the audio cd copy. I didn't have anyone else's stuff on the machine as I'd just done a clean install of windows XP professional. Since two drive copies from my dvd reader worked ok I just gave up but since the latest version of clone cd came out that issue is apparently fixed because the latest version doesn't have the garbled audio issue with that drive anymore.

It's been my experience that most software and hardware companies will spend more energy blaming someone else's software (usually the competition) than admitting that there might be an issue with their product and start looking for a problem. Clone CD is pretty good stuff but that experience with their "lack of tech support" burned me up--I sent them a "told you so" email when the new version came out and didn't have the issue anymore, of course they didn't respond.

 

[suemccartin]

In response to geokun
Hi, I tried to send you the firmware update but I guess I don't get the right way to put in your email address. If you would please send me an email at suemccartin@mindspring.com I'll respond to you with the files you want.

 

[JohnnyDrako]

isepiq: I have tried Nero as well and still have the same problem. My conclusion: this CD player doesn't work. Now, months later, I'm still trying to schedule the time to remove this dag-blanged thing and drive it across the suburban sprawl of Phoenix to return it to Fry's Electronics. We'll see if they take it back.

 

[Shobie2000]

I also got the BurnMax 48x I have been having the same problems with write speeds, averaged around 12x. I also frequently got bad disk writes and now I have a pile of coasters! But it looks like I have solved my problem at least.

I have a W2K Pro. system, 423 P4 1.7 on a VIA 266 chipset. I solved my problem by enabling the DMA access in the Device Manager under the IDE Controller advanced settings.

I am now burning at full speed, 48x, on my cheapo-noname CDR disks!

You should check to see if your DMA is set to ON if available and hopefully that will solve some of the write speed problems.

 

[jasonW138]

I'm using the internal Burnmax48 on a win98 box. The Burnmax is set as "slave" on the second IDE channel which is shared with an old 40x CD drive (jumped as master).

The native SW was locking up as soon as it was opened; the latest Nero demo was locking up during a burn, usually around 85%.

In my device manager under "Hard disk controllers" there is a device/controller listed as "VIA Bus Master PCI IDE Controller" which was set to 'default'. Upon changing the setting to 'both IDE channels enabled' the Burnmax drive started to work perfectly with Nero.

I don't know if other chipsets have a setting such as this in the device manager, but it appears to have made all the difference. DMA is currently disabled.

 

[ronnieh]

My 32x burnmax was manufactured by Benq.Was making a coaster every other session until I upgraded firmware.If your firmware version is T.xA then you've got a BenQ.
One note:after you flash the drive shut down instead of rebooting.

http://www.benq.com/drivers/storage_drivers.html

 

[makakilo]

I was having problems with my burnmax32 (rebadged BTC). The symptoms are noted throughout this thread. Basically the drive would disappear after one or two uses. Sometimes if I reboot the BIOS couldn't find the drive. I noticed certain reviews mentioned that the drive worked fine as a slave device. I reconfigured the drive to be a slave on the IDE0 chain and it works fine now. Originally I had CS on the HD (slave) and Burnmax32(master) on IDE0.

In addition I found that if it would only work as a master on IDE1 if no other devices were on the chain.

 

[mactt]

If you have the Polaroid Burnmax32, firmware version 08, and a sticker on the top of drive says BCE3212IM, there is a firmware update, version .008G, you can try. I had the same problem of the drive just disappearing, and now it's fixed. You can get the update from this chinese webpage, so you may want to use a translator like altavista's babelfish to read most of the page:

http://www.teclast.com/topic.php?channelID=69&topicID=141

Just look for the firmware that's version "v.008G"

To use this update, you absolutely should know how to use mtkflash in dos from a startup disk. But this update package also comes with a bat file, "up.bat", that runs mtkflash for you, so it's a breeze. But FIRST, you have to use mtkflash manually to make a backup of your existing 08 firmware in case something goes wrong so you can always put back the original firmware. Good Luck.

 

[zeeek]

I've been having the exact same problems for almost a year now.
I was using the memorex disks that come in the green box. They have a max speed of 4X.
I even tried setting the max speed for the drive to 4X.
I finally threw out my last disk. Then (just by chance I got one for free)I finally tried the high-speed disk (BLUE box).
Guess what? It works like a charm now.
I'm using burn-max24ex (external)
on winxphome.sp1
using the default windows drivers only and the NTI software.
FilCD is great now.
So if you still have this try a disk that matches your MAX speed.
I just wish I had got the 48x now.
Hope someone finds this helpful.