ASPI Driver Authonticity - CD Burner does a blue screen.

Apologies for the slightly long rant, but this is the way my CD Burner actually works.

Over the last few months, I have had some problems with my CD Burner. Through the process of elimination, I discovered that the burner it self still works fine, as I can still burn discs o'kay. I checked if I had the write drivers, and I do as the burner still works okay. Basically, this is the senario,

SENARIO ONE - The Problem

After switching on my WIN ME / 128 RAM / 1.7 gig machine, the boot up goes fine. I then go into nero 5. Going through the wizard, I drag and drop all the tracks into the burn window, change properties to remove 2 second gaps, then I'm Set.

I hit the burn button, and am asked to select my burner. After selecting burner, the program starts its burn window for a millisecond. THIS IS WHERE THE FUN BEGINS - DA DA DA DA DA DA!!!! (someone pull out that rushing droaning violin for backing music - something like the theme music to Jaws)

I get a blue screen. My computer is frozen end of story. I'm in a total freeze. Time for a reboot, (well actually switching off at the wall and switch back on - wait for 20 minutes as my computer does a complete rescan of my hard-drive, for a improper shut-down)

SENARIO TWO - The Work Around.

After switching on my computer, I go into Nero 5, select all the tracks, drop them into the burn window.

Just before I'm ready to burn, I make sure that my CD Burner tray is empty. I then proceed to burn, I select my burner from the burn dialog box.

The program will then open up my burner draw. At this point, I exit the burn process, but just back to where I have selected the tracks. (not exiting nero). I then place a CD in, then press the burn function again. The burn dialog box comes up, asking me to select burner, I press burn, and then finally after all this SCREWING AROUND, I can finally burn a disc.

As I wanted to transfer some old video tapes to VCD, I downloaded VCDEasy 3 yesterday, installed it, and during the installation process noted that my computer didn't have the right version of ASPI. BINGO! I finally found the root of all my problems.

I thought I would just get away with a quick google of "ASPI ", but got a bit more then I bargained for. I learned that there is a bit of a history with Adaptec and the various versions of Windows, and a billion and one versions of this so called ASPI driver. I think I know what driver I'm after but as I'm not quite up with this kind of stuff, would like some advice.

I discover that grc.com had a APSI Driver called ASPI_ME, specifically for windows ME, but then learned that it discontinued. I did another search on ASPI_ME, and found quite a few pages. Just don't know which ones are genuine.

Does anyone know where I can get a ASPI driver for Windows ME?

Mark
Sydney
Australia

 

Have you looked here under Microsoft Windows Millennium??

http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/su...roduct/ASPI-4.70&prodkey=Windows+ASPI+Package

 

The ASPI version that seems to work with the least amount of trouble is the one installed by ForceASPI 1.7. There is a ForceASPI 1.8, but that installs the newer Adaptec ASPI that I and many others found to be extremely buggy.

Sometimes Windows Me's System File Protection makes changing out files like this a pain in the neck, though it's great for protecting your system from evil old files that programs install but will mess with your system!

There is a way around this. I used to watch the Force ASPI dos box as it warned of stuff not installing, then booting with a Me Startup disc and replacing the file manually. But this is not necessary.

You can download CoolKill. I found it from a link on the www.mdgx.com website. You would want to disable System Restore and reboot. Run Coolkill and disable StateMgr.exe from the CoolKill right click menu in the systray. Then run dumpaspi from the extracted ForceASPI 1.7 folder. Then run INSTASPI from the same folder. Reboot, reenable system restore, and you'll have a working ASPI layer.

You can then remove CoolKill from the startup folder so it won't start every time you start Windows.