I have built 2 similar machines and both have the same problem: The burmers don't work. Not only do they fail the speed tests in Nero and Adaptec's software (causing a system lockup), they also fail to read CD's accurately. I tried using both of them to install Win 2k pro and server and ended up with read errors and aborted installations. I'm running them both as slaves to Maxtor 40G harddrives on ASUS A7A266 mobos. I'm sure I'm doing something stupid and/or have overlooked something obvious. Any ideas? Please help me....

Hi Brent: I had a similar problem when I installed an HP 9500i burner on a box the other day. I've not yet had time to figure out what the actual cause of the problem was, but setting the burner as a master on the secondary IDE controller solved it. --But only after I installed Adaptec CD Creator, then NTI, then uninstalled the Adaptec software. Weird, huh? I was simply happy to have found a quick solution, as I was doing this in a customer's office and the always gripe about how much I charge and hover over me while I'm working. Yep, and they are lawyers who charge $300 per hour. Go figure. I have a contract with them but will definitely be raising my rates (for them) when it's up for renewal *lol*

Windows 2000 has some problems with some of the CD burning software, so make sure you're using the latest version.....

Thanks guys. I changed both burners to master on secondary IDE. On the machine running win 2k pro I can burn data and audio from the hard drive, but I can't copy cds from the cd-rom drive. I've tried slowing down the write speed to no avail. During the speed test it locks. On the other box I can't install a working copy of Win 2k server using the burner or the cd-rom drive. I get read error messages during file copy, and if I get through that step unscathed, the installation inevitably fails after the machine reboots. I'm killing myself here...

Well Brent, I cannot say I'm an expert but I had a similar problem and I've read that the ideal is to have CD drivers or burners in different IDE ports but as there are no many choices, you can put them either one as primary slave (of your harddrive if you have just one) and the other secondary master or... secondary master and slave. Anyway, when you have both in the same channel (secondary as you do)to copy a CD the information uses the same cable and you can imagine there is a mixture of simultaneus messages through this cable. You can do it better by selecting the option of "copy to hard disk" in the burning software. It worked for me. Tell me if I'm wrong. Good luck