ron@ntmtv.UUCP (Ron Barry) (02/09/90)
We have been in possession of a Sony CD-ROM Drive Unit for some time, along with a Microsoft Programmer's Library CD. Unfortunately, we have no device driver(s) for the CD-ROM. Microsoft says that it should have been supplied by Sony, and Sony says that it should have been supplied by Microsoft. We have information that drivers are available from a company called Reference Technology, Inc. Is this true, and if so, why didn't either Microsoft or Sony include this information with their product? Is anyone else having this problem, and if so, what did you do about it? Regards, Ron Barry. P.S. Thanks to those who answered my earlier questions via E-mail; I still haven't figured out how to use E-mail so as to thank you more directly, so I am taking the opportunity to do so in this way.
jcmorris@mbunix.mitre.org (Morris) (02/10/90)
In a recent article ron@ntmtv.UUCP (Ron Barry) writes: > >We have been in possession of a Sony CD-ROM Drive Unit for some time, along >with a Microsoft Programmer's Library CD. Unfortunately, we have no >device driver(s) for the CD-ROM. Microsoft says that it should have been >supplied by Sony, and Sony says that it should have been supplied by >Microsoft. As I understand it, the drive vendor is responsible for supplying *all* the interface software, including both a device driver and a copy of Microsoft CD-ROM Extensions (MSCDEX). As the end customer, you shoulnd't have to go to Microsoft for anything other than the application disk and its unique software (Programmer's Library in this case). Microsoft supplies the drive vendors with a copy of MSCDEX which they include with the drive; the vendor is responsible for writing and delivering the drvice driver. There's no way Microsoft could supply the driver because by definition the driver is interfacing with the drive vendor's unique interface. MSCDEX hooks into the DOS system to provide the image of a disk drive and uses generic calls to the driver in order to read the disk; the driver fields these generic calls and issues the appropriate IN and OUT instructions to negotiate with the vendor's interface card. If you bought the unit as the original retail purchaser you should talk to the store (and to Sony's regional or national management if necessary); if it came from some other retail user then that's where you need to go for the support software. Joe Morris
tat@pccuts.pcc.amdahl.com (Tom Thackrey) (02/10/90)
In article <764@ntmtv.UUCP> ron@ntmtv.UUCP (Ron Barry) writes: > >We have been in possession of a Sony CD-ROM Drive Unit for some time, along >with a Microsoft Programmer's Library CD. Unfortunately, we have no >device driver(s) for the CD-ROM. Microsoft says that it should have been >supplied by Sony, and Sony says that it should have been supplied by >Microsoft. We have information that drivers are available from a company >called Reference Technology, Inc. Is this true, and if so, why didn't >either Microsoft or Sony include this information with their product? Is >anyone else having this problem, and if so, what did you do about it? > In case anyone is interested ... CD-ROM drives under MS-DOS require TWO drivers for most applications. First, a device driver, in config.sys, to handle the physical device. Second, a TSR program, called MSCDEX.EXE, which interprets the ISO 9660 or High Sierra format of the CD-ROM. Older CD-ROM discs may not use these 'standard' formats and may not require MSCDEX.EXE. As I understand it, the drive manufacturer provides BOTH the driver and the TSR. The TSR is written (but not sold retail) by Microsoft and OEMd by the drive makers. Several companies sell the MSCDEX.EXE program independent of the hardware. (Compact Disk Products comes to mind.) The latest version of MSCDEX.EXE is 2.10 and is required for MS-DOS 4+. Hope this is helpful. -- Tom Thackrey sun!amdahl!tat00 [ The opinions expressed herin are mine alone. ]