Hi,

I'm having trouble getting an external USB2 CD-RW/DVD combo drive getting seen by EAC. The drive works perfectly well in Nero, and otherwise works beautifully.

Any ideas ?

Edit: OS is Winxp SP1. Nero and EAC are up-to-date.

cd writing in eac doesn't seem very stable or compatible right now unfortunately. Attempting to write a cd-r with EAC on my 32x MSI burner locks up EAC, and though I can close from the task manager, my comp requires a reboot because both of my cd drives become invisible to windows (ie. disappear from My computer).

Not only that, when I tried EAC on my old yamaha burner, it froze my entire computer, so now I just don't bother with eac writing at all! Too bad EAC development seems so slow; it could easily be a complete all-in-one ripping/burning/wav editing program...

When I had problems with soft I tried (& still use) ForceASPI

floyd: I experienced the same problems as you (on another computer) when burning with EAC.. it burns at 1x, and crashes at the end ! However, here, I'm just trying to extract audio using EAC ! My external drive doesn't come in the pull-down list ?

westgroved: I'll try it but... I had already installed a similar ASPI package, which didn't seem to solve the problem. If the drive is not even seen by EAC, what can I do ?

Do you have the drive already powered on when you start EAC?

The reason I ask is because in the past I would periodically forget to turn on my external drive and while EAC was running I'd power it on but EAC wouldn't be able to see the drive until I exited EAC and then restarted the program.

Something else that comes to mind; is the drive power on when you start Windows?

Yes, it's powered on since minutes ago when I start EAC. I've tried restarting EAC several times anyway, and it only sees my virtual DVD drive, nothing else.
Oh, I haven't tried powering it on before starting windows. I'll let you know.

From this thread:

Lots of people seem to run into problems getting EAC (a widely used secure CD Audio ripping program) to work on their computer.

Problems Getting EAC to Read Discs

If you've downloaded EAC but it doesn't seem to recognize your drive or work properly, try these steps, listed in order of least possible change. If you have XP, see the notes below, too.

First step, start EAC, go to EAC, EAC Options, Interface. See if it works on either the Native Interface or the ASPI Interface. (If you change this, you have to close and restart EAC for the change to take effect.)

If that's not enough, this next step fixes things for lots of people with Win2K or XP: drop the Nero ASPI file (WNASPI32.DLL) in the same folder as your EAC program. (ASPI is a software layer that enables programs to communicate with devices.) You can get WNASPI32.DLL via the link at the bottom of the Nero Download Page. (Be sure you have EAC set to use the ASPI Interface, as above.)

If that doesn't work for you, or if you have Win 95/98/ME, you may need or want to check your general ASPI layer. The best thing to do would be to go to Bart's ASPI Page and get aspichk and see what it says. (Also, there may be - and can be - a different ASPI installed in your Windows system folder. I'm on Win2K and currently have Nero's ASPI in my EAC folder and Adaptec ASPI installed at the system level.)

Some have reported success with the third EAC interface option, VOB's ASAPI layer, but try that last.

Notes for XP Users

I've also seen this advice a few places, worth a try:





Force ASPI is obsolete.

your virtual dvd drive might be the problem depending on which software installed it.
i read that some virtual drives have the option to 'hide media' be it the ability to read the atip info in a cd-rw so that the copied game will run or hide the fact that you are using a cd-rw to play the game. i am not sure of exactly what it does or how it works. try switching this option to off in the software that installed it and then retry eac. it is possible that since the media is hidden eac cant see it (the drive). if i remember correctly cdex and daemon tools are not compatible due to this. the other trick that may work is to drop the wnaspi32.dll from nero in with eac and see if that helps

i have not tried this and don't know for sure if it will work but it might be worth a shot.

Good news: the PROBLEM was SOLVED using buzzy's quote. I copied Nero's wnaspi32.dll to the EAC directory, and it detected my external drive at once

Now it remains to be seen, if I can rip and/or burn

Thanks to everyone here, if I run into any more problems I'll let you know.

glad it worked, if you run XP be sure to check the other comments.

it should most certainly rip, burn depends on whether your drive is supported ...

The link to the Nero ASPI file WNASPI32.DLL is toward the middle to bottom of the Nero Download Page or use ftp://ftp6.nero.com/wnaspi32.dll.

FYI the same solution, of putting a copy of Nero ASPI into the same folder as the program, may also fix a similar problem (won't see the drive, won't see a disc in the drive) with other programs. Such as CDRWin.

So if your drive isn't recognized, or the disc isn't, give it a try.

Also, if you have the hide media features of Alcohol or CloneCD turned on, or any virtual drives installed, try it after completely shutting down those programs, and see if it helps. Then come back here and let us know.

ForceASPI is obsolete.

Don't miss the comments for XP users.

bump