i just wanted to post something amusing..

[KennyPolo]

i just thought i would post something funny :)

my cousin is running a p2 machine 350mhz, 128mb

the funny thing is his mom bought him a hewlett packard external cd-writer..

8x8x32x

she spent somewhere around around $150 i believe

it happens to be USB :(

[Dudster]

I think if he buys a PCI USB card for about 10-$20, he should be able to use it just fine.

[KennyPolo]

it does work.. sometimes..

[Mr.Goodbytes]

You sure it's 8X8X32? USB 1.1 specifications cannot handle 8X without having frequent buffer underruns. I don't even think HP makes an 8X USB model. I know they do so for SCSI, but last time I checked it was a bit more expensive than that. 150 bucks isn't bad though for an external drive. Even if it is 4X.

[KennyPolo]

im almost positive its 8x

[Dudster]

My mistake. I just assumed that your cousin didn't have USB sockets and therefore couldn't use the writer. I don't really know anything about writers so all I can say is, good luck getting it to work.

[DanU]

8x * 150kbytes/s * 8bytes/bit = 9.375Mbits/s

That's getting awfully close to the theoretical 12Mbits/s limit of USB.

[KennyPolo]

ill have him do a check on the box it came in, im sure he told me it was 8x

[KennyPolo]

he just checked.. the speed is 8x4x32x

sometimes the burning process gets messed up somehow it says its interrupted.. is there any way to fix it?

[Mr.Goodbytes]

Well, HP has of late been using so-called "optimized" software for their drives. Either they're mangling Adaptec's software (which they used in its unaltered form in the past) or they're tampering with someone else's. In any event, it's wayyyy to user friendly and supposedly fail-safe. It's just really annoying, that's all. I'd recommend purchasing a copy of Adaptec/Roxio's EZ CD Creator software. Roxio is the new name, and is available in version 5 Platinum. I would say your cheapest route would be to find the old version (Adaptec EZ CD Creator Deluxe 4.x), since it should be marked down by now. Best of luck to ya both!! :)

BTW, what model number is that HP? I couldn't find any external 8X out there by them that wasn't SCSI. But if they have an 8X USB model for only 150 bucks, I'd sure love to go get one.

[otheos]

does it also have a firewire port?

some external burners (like the predator) say they are 8x they come with both USB and firewire. They work at 4x when connected on the USB but 8x with the firewire.

I doubt there is anyway to squeze 8x from a USB1.1 port. If he gets errors, well... no woder.