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General discussion

External CD-RW recognized as USB Optical Storage

May 8, 2005 1:47AM PDT

Does somebody know how to deal with this problem? I have a BENQ external cd-rw usb device and the notebook recognizes it as an USB Optical Storage. I tried it in a desktop and it does the same thing. I cant even install the driver because it does not found the device or because windows looks for a driver of a USB data storage.
Thank you in advance

Discussion is locked

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That's proper for most windows.
May 8, 2005 1:54AM PDT

Only 2 versions of Windows might see it as a CDRW. All others see such as drive as "USB Optical Storage."

To use the drive I add software such as you find at http://www.cdburnerxp.se/

Bob

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Thank you
May 8, 2005 8:59AM PDT

Thank you for the reply, but I do not see how can a burning software remedy this problem. The site does not have any help on this problem and it seems that the software hasnt been tested on any external Benq yet.

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I'll wait while all this new information sinks in.
May 8, 2005 9:32AM PDT

Windows (most versions) does not know a CDRW drive from a CD drive. Many are unaware of this and fall into a trap of "it shouldn't be this way" for some period of time.

I'll wait for you to figure that out.

In the meantime, if you want to create a CDR or CDRW disk, the software I noted is free to try out.

Bob

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No driver
May 8, 2005 9:10PM PDT

The problem is that the device was working ok, and after the same cable was used to connect a digital camera with the computer, it did not work anymore since it recognizes the drive as optical storage and does not read any kind of cd. It seems to me that the device does not communicate at all with the computer (it must be it since there is no driver for the cd-rw drive).

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Interesting.
May 8, 2005 9:44PM PDT

While I may wonder why you didn't write this in your first post, I now just ask you to ignore any reply up to this point and hope someone else sees a solution.

To me the drive sounds dead or you have an USB 1.1 cable and it should an USB 2.0 cable.

Bob

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My fault
May 9, 2005 12:33AM PDT

I apologize for not being explicit in the beginning, I thought the fact that the computer recognizes the drive as optical storage would be enough, hoping that somebody else got the same problem. I hope it is just a cable problem.
Thank you for your help.

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No problem.
May 9, 2005 12:48AM PDT

The detail was needed since most Windows would ID such a drive as ... such. And I would see nothing wrong.

Bob