Operation Manual
Model PX-R820Ti Internal and PX-R820Te External
CD Recorder/Reader
March 1999
FCC NOTICE
This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital
device, pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable
protection against harmful interference in a residential installation. This equipment generates,
uses, and can radiate radio frequency energy, and, if not installed and used in accordance
with the instructions, may cause harmful interference to radio communications. However,
there is no guarantee interference will not occur in a particular installation. If this equipment
causes harmful interference to radio or television reception, which can be determined by
turning the equipment off and on, the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by
one or more of the following measures:
• Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna.
• Increase the separation between the equipment and receiver.
• Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the
receiver is connected.
• Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/TV technician for help.
For External Model Users: Please use the external shielded SCSI cables supplied with this
CD-ROM drive. Using other signal cables may exceed the limits of the Class B Part 15 of the
FCC Rules.
Any changes or modifications should be approved by the party responsible for compliance
of FCC Rules; otherwise, the user loses authority to operate the equipment.
CAUTION
Use of controls or adjustments or performance of procedures other than those specified herein may result in hazardous radiation exposure.
The laser beam emitted from the optical pickup is invisible. Accordingly:
• Do not open the optical pickup housing.
• Obtain service only from Plextor-authorized personnel.
LASER INFORMATION
These products have been designed and manufactured according to IEC 825-1 on the Safety
of Laser products. This product comes under “Class 1 Laser Products.” A Laser Caution
Marking is attached on the top of the internal drive model: “Caution: Invisible laser radiation
when open. Avoid direct exposure to beam.”
CAUTION
To disconnect the CD-ROM drive from an electrical current, pull out the power plug.
VORSICHT
DIE TRENNUNG VOM NETZ ERFOLGT DURCH ZIEHEN DES NETZSECKES.
Zur Einhaltung der Funk-Entstörung von nicht selbständig betreibbaren Hochfrequenzgeräten (periphere Anlagenkomponenten).
Dieses Gerät entspricht als Einzelgerät den Funk-Entstöranforderungen der Postverfügung Nr. 243/1991. Wird das Gerät innerhalb einer Anlage zusammen mit anderen Geräten betrieben. So
muβ bei Inanspruchnahme der “Allgemeinen (Betriebs-) genehmigung” nach der BMPT-AmtsblVfg Nr. 243/1991 die gesamte Anlage
folgenden Richtlinien entsprechen:
• Grenzwertklases B der EN55022
• Auflagen nach § 2 der BMPT-AmtsblVfg 243/1991
Dies ist bei der Zusammensetzung einer Anlage (z.B. Computersystem) aus nur einzein
geprüften Geräten nicht immer erfüllt.
ÜG-Vfg.243
CD Recorder/Reader
PX-R820Ti Internal
PX-R820Te External
Plextor reserves the right to make improvements in the products described in this manual at
any time without prior notice.
Plextor makes no representation or warranties with respect to the contents hereof and
specifically disclaims any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for any particular
purpose. Further, Plextor Corp. reserves the right to revise this manual and to make changes
in its content without obligation to notify any person or organization of such revision or
change.
This manual is copyrighted, all rights reserved. It may not be copied, photocopied, translated,
or reduced to any electronic medium or machine-readable form without Plextor’s prior
permission.
Manual copyright © March 1999 Plextor Corp.
Licenses and Trademarks
All licenses and trademarks are property of their respective owners.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2. Box Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Internal Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
External Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
A Gentle Reminder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3. What Else Do I Need? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4. Precautions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
5. Drive Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Front Panel — Internal and External Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
PX-R820Ti Internal Drive — Rear Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
PX-R820Te External Drive — Rear Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
6. Drive Switch/Jumper/Dial Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
PX-R820Ti Internal Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
PX-R820Te External Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Other Switch/Jumper Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
7. Termination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Internal Termination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
External Termination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
8. Hardware Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Board Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Drive Positioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Mounting an Internal Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
External Drive Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Regarding Soundcards and Audio Cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Audio Cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
9. Software Device Driver Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
10. Using CD-ROM/CD-R Discs and Trays . . . . . . . . . . 35
Tray Loading and Operating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Handling CD-R Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Cleaning the Disc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
11. How To Play Audio CDs on Your Drive . . . . . . . . . . 37
12. Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Upgrading Firmware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Technical Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
12.1 PC Compatibles: Inital Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
12.2 PC Compatibles: Existing Installations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
12.3 Apple Macintosh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
13. Contacting Plextor’s Technical Support Department 56
How to Contact Us . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Before You E-mail/Log On/Fax/Call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Returns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Helpful Contacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
14. Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Appendix: Windows 95/98 Installation Guide . . . . . . . . 62
About Plextor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Warranty Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
PX-R820T OPERATION MANUAL 1
Introduction
Thank you for purchasing the Plextor PlexWriter 8/20, a high performance and
reliable CD Reader/Recorder. We appreciate the confidence you have shown in us.
Our goal is to put you — and keep you — on the leading edge of CD technology.
To get you there, we first have to help you install your PlexWriter 8/20 drive properly
and operate it correctly. After that, the responsibility is yours to seek the applications
that make a CD-R such a powerful and exciting addition to your system.
Throughout this manual we will occasionally refer to the PlexWriter by the
general model number PX-R820T. We will also refer to the model numbers with a
lowercase “i” or “e” added to it to indicate internal or external, respectively. For
your purposes, all references apply to the PlexWriter 8/20 CD-R drive. (CD-R is a
common abbreviation for CD-Recordable drives and recordable CD media.)
For those of you with PCs, the installation process may seem a bit complicated
(Mac people have it easy). Fear not. We have successfully walked through the
installation process with millions of customers who previously had lived in mortal
terror of the innards of their computer.
In this manual you should find all the information you need to successfully install,
operate, and troubleshoot your drive. If you run into an unsolvable problem,
however, please contact us (see Chapter 13 for the different ways you can contact
us). You will be connected to our friendly, helpful band of tech support reps who
know their stuff. What might seem like an uncooperative CD-R drive to you could
very well be a 30-second fix to them. But we will never know unless you contact
us. If you are having trouble, please don’t give up and take your drive back to where
you bought it until you have spoken with one of our tech support reps.
— CHAPTER 1 —
This manual is designed to be followed in sequence. It is aimed primarily
at those who will connect their PlexWriter 8/20 drive to a PC.
Mac users should look for this symbol:
Users of UNIX-based systems
should look for this symbol:
as an indicator of sections of the manual that pertain to them.
Many of you reading this manual are experienced computer users who
have successfully installed peripherals in the past. There probably are a
number of sections in this manual that you can skip over. However, we ask
everyone — from novice computer users to experienced computer
professionals — to read the sections marked with this symbol:
2 PX-R820T OPERATION MANUAL
Box Contents
YOUR TASK: Check the contents of the box.
YOUR OBJECTIVE: Make sure you got everything you paid for.
YOUR METHOD: Compare what you find in the box with the tables on
the following pages.
What you find in your Plextor box depends on two factors: 1) what
configuration you purchased; and 2) what the company that sold you the box
put in — or took out — while it was in their possession.
Plextor currently sells its PlexWriter 8/20 drives in two configurations:
1) Drive with bundled software, including CD-mastering software for
PC, packet writing software, Plextor’s own CD Res-Q™ software for
HDD disaster recovery, Plextor Manager Utilities, and media. (We
may add more utilities as we uncover them.)
2) Drive kit with SCSI interface board, the software listed above, cables,
and media.
The drive kits come with either PCI bus-mastering SCSI controllers or PCMCIA
controllers for laptops. The configuration you received is indicated by stickers
applied to your box. Your drive may also have been integrated into a computer
system or subsystem sold by a third party.
NOTE: A security sticker was applied to the top of your box. The contents of
your box were carefully checked before this sticker was applied. If it
was cut before you purchased the box, you should carefully check the
contents to ensure nothing has been removed. If something is missing,
you should contact the party from whom you purchased the box for an
explanation.
There may be a good reason why the security sticker on the box was
cut before you received it. For example, a dealer may have purchased
a Drive Only configuration from Plextor, then added a SCSI interface
board and/or software purchased separately before selling the box to
you.
NOTE: If your drive came preinstalled, the rails, cables, interface boards and
other parts shown on the following pages may have been installed and
may not be separately available. Other accessories, especially
software, may not have been purchased from Plextor and thus may be
different from those sold in Plextor retail packages.
— CHAPTER 2 —
PX-R820T OPERATION MANUAL 3
DRIVE
SOFTWARE KIT SCSI KIT
CD-R drive
X X
4 mounting screws X X
Approved CD-R media (1 piece) X X
Plextor CD with
bundled software,
Plextor Manager, and CD Res-Q X X
SCSI interface board
and manual* X
Audio cable* X (2)
SCSI cable*
X
Plextor operation manual* X X
Warranty registration card X X
Extra jumpers for setting drive
switches
X X
CHAPTER 2 — Box Contents
* Please see Chapter 13, page 59, for locations to purchase additional or replacement accessories.
Use the following tables to check the contents of your box:
PX-R820Ti Internal Drives
4 PX-R820T OPERATION MANUAL
DRIVE
SOFTWARE KIT SCSI KIT
CD-R drive
X X
Approved CD-R media (1 piece) X X
Plextor CD with
bundled software,
Plextor Manager, and CD Res-Q X X
SCSI interface board
and manual* X
Audio cable* X
Power cable X X
SCSI cable*
X
Plextor operation manual* X
Warranty registration card X X
CHAPTER 2 — Box Contents
* Please see Chapter 13, page 59, for locations to purchase additional or replacement accessories.
PX-R820Te External Drives
PX-R820T OPERATION MANUAL 5
A Gentle Reminder. . .
YOUR TASK: Save your box (if you received one).
YOUR OBJECTIVE: Have a secure container in which to ship your drive
back to Plextor, if necessary.
YOUR METHOD: Find an empty space in your home/office and fill it
with the Plextor box.
If you received your PlexWriter 8/20 CD-R drive in a Plextor box, you should
save the box after you have installed your drive. There are many sets of hands
— some of them potentially unfriendly — that a PlexWriter 8/20 might go
through on its way from us to you. Our box and its packaging material were
designed and drop tested to ensure that your PlexWriter 8/20 can endure
rough treatment and still arrive in working order.
We advise you to hold on to your box in case you should ever need to return
your drive to Plextor for any reason. Unfortunately, some of our customers
have not held on to their boxes and have had to resort to some
less-than-secure methods to get drives back to us. We have received drives in
a shoebox, in an unpadded express mail envelope, and in a box filled with
buttered popcorn.
We cannot assume liability for any damage your drive sustains during
shipment. Therefore, please ship your drive in the safest manner possible. We
believe your drive will be most secure if it is shipped in a Plextor box. We
hope you will never have to ship your drive back to us. If you do, however,
we hope you will send it packaged in a Plextor box.
If you did not receive a Plextor box (for example, your drive came pre-installed
in a computer), we recommend that you pay a packaging store (e.g., Mail
Boxes Etc.) in your area to ship your drive. The drives that we have received
from most packaging stores have arrived in good shape. If you don’t have a
packaging store in your area, call our Technical Support Department for
packaging pointers before you ship your drive. In fact, you must call our
Technical Support Department to get an RMA number before returning any
drive (see Chapter 13).
CHAPTER 2 — Box Contents
What Else Do I Need?
YOUR TASK: Review the software and hardware installed in your
current computer system.
YOUR OBJECTIVE: Determine what else you may need to operate your
CD-R drive.
YOUR METHOD: Inventory your current computer system; check list
below.
If you purchased a Plextor box labeled Drive Kit with PCI SCSI Interface or
Drive Kit with PCMCIA Interface, your needs are simple: none. Everything you
need to successfully install and operate your PlexWriter 8/20 is included in the
box you purchased.
If you are a PC owner who has purchased a PlexWriter 8/20 Drive with
Software Kit, life gets a bit more complicated. These drives are intended for
purchase by those with SCSI adapters purchased or installed separately. They
do not have cables or a SCSI controller. Software Only packages are for those
who need a Plextor CD-R drive but prefer to use their own sources for all the
accessories. If you purchased a software kit, you will need to select cables and
a SCSI controller. The SCSI controller you own will fall into one of two groups:
1) You do not own a SCSI interface board.
In this case, you have to get one. Your local computer store and
numerous mail order vendors carry them. Due to the technical
demands of producing your own CDs, it is suggested that you buy a
high performance bus-mastering interface board. Older PIO SCSI
interface boards may not properly support CD recording. We suggest
you purchase a bus-mastering PCI card from any of the larger adapter
companies. See page 59 for suggested sources.
2) You own a SCSI interface board.
If you purchased your SCSI interface board several months or years
before you purchased your PlexWriter 8/20, you may need to update
your device drivers. See the discussion about Device Drivers in
Chapter 9 of this manual.
NOTE: We recommend that you do not use a SCSI interface built into a
soundboard.
6 PX-R820T OPERATION MANUAL
— CHAPTER 3 —
If you need to purchase a SCSI cable, note the following:
Internal Cables
You may already have a SCSI ribbon cable. If you are removing an existing
internal SCSI device and installing the PlexWriter 8/20, you can use the same
cable. If you are not removing an existing internal SCSI device, you may need
to purchase a different SCSI ribbon cable from your local computer supply
store. The cable must have at least as many connectors as you have SCSI
peripherals (including one for your PlexWriter 8/20), plus one additional
connector to attach to the interface board. Be sure to read the section on
Termination in Chapter 7 of this manual.
External Cables
If you have an external PlexWriter 8/20, you will need to purchase an external
SCSI cable. Make sure at least one end of the cable has the same kind of SCSI
connector as your PlexWriter. The other end of the cable must have the proper
connector to fit your SCSI controller or another daisy-chained external SCSI
device. Be sure to read the section on Termination in Chapter 7 of this manual.
You will also need:
Premastering Software
In order to create CD-R discs, you will need to have premastering software
installed on your computer system. You can check our web site (www.plextor.com)
for an updated list. We provide premastering software kits in retail packaging
for your convenience.
Once you have assembled everything you need, you’re ready to install your
drive. But first, a few words of caution are in order.
PX-R820T OPERATION MANUAL 7
CHAPTER 3 — What Else Do I Need?
8 PX-R820T OPERATION MANUAL
Precautions
YOUR TASK: Read the list of precautions below.
YOUR OBJECTIVE: Avoid any undo harm coming to you or your drive.
YOUR METHOD: Review the list and use common sense.
Your new PlexWriter 8/20 is a precision electromechanical device. Like the
rest of your computer system, it requires reasonable care in its installation and
use.
Please read this manual carefully and keep it handy for easy reference. Use
this manual for installation, operation, and troubleshooting. See your dealer or
call Plextor’s Technical Support Department should your drive require repair
or service.
✗ Do not put your computer monitor (or any other device weighing
more than 30 lbs.) on top of the PlexWriter 8/20 external drive.
✗ Do not place your drive in direct sunlight, on heating units, or near
electrical appliances that draw large amounts of current, such as a
high-powered audio amplifier, microwave oven, toaster, hair dryer, etc.
✓ Keep the area around your drive clean from dust, smoke, and other
contaminants.
✓ Use a soft, dust-free cloth for cleaning your drive. Do not allow
moisture or liquids including water, cleaning fluids, or solvents to
touch the drive. Thinner, benzene, or alcohol-based solvents can mar
your drive’s surface.
✓ To help ensure that your CD-ROM discs remain free of dirt or other
contaminants, they should be stored in a jewel case. Use only industry
standard discs. Do not insert warped, poorly balanced, or cracked discs
into the drive.
✓ Keep your CD-ROM disc clean. See Chapter 10 for tips on handling
and cleaning CD-ROM discs.
✗ Do not drop or jolt the drive.
✗ Do not attempt to open the drive and service it yourself. Removing the
cover may expose you to harmful electrical voltages or the laser beam.
For your safety, entrust service to Plextor-authorized service personnel
only.
— CHAPTER 4 —
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