With the replacement of the Pro Audio Spectrum 16 with a Sound Blaster 16 ASP, I had a problem[1]. The early '90s PC motherboards have a single IDE connector. To add a CD-ROM drive, it has to be plugged into the sound card.
Of course there were fifteen different "standards". The PAS16 had a SCSI connector for data and an audio cable which to this day I still have no idea of how it is named.
Creative did not try to decide which CD-ROM standard was going to win. They released a version of their SB16 for almost all of them. There is a great reference[2] by dosday.co.uk which summarizes all the models and their CD-ROM interfaces.
The SB16 I got is a model CT1740 (the very first SB16 \0/) which means the CD-ROM interface is Panasonic. According to the box, two CD-ROM drives, models CR521 and CR523 are supported.
The model CR521 is the coolest looking one. It also uses a caddy system which is insanely cool and elegant. The problem is that these cost an arm and both legs. Also, these are single speed CD drives and to play Command & Conquer the box I was going to need a double speed (2x).
I ended up finding a CR523b. These use a tray to load the CD which is less elegant than caddys but they work at double speed (2x). I found the price exorbitant and cursed myself for having such a weird hobby. And then I bought it.
I gave in because they are hard to find in working condition and this one was advertised as tested. I also really liked that it has the SB logo in the front. Also, it was made in 1993 so it was in-line with the rest of my hardware.
One's mind is never as creative as when they want to find a reason to buy something.
The Panasonic connector is a Matsushita MKE[3]. This interface is deceiving since it looks exactly like an IDE.
Finding out what audio cable to use to connect the CD-ROM drive to the sound card (and allow audio CD playback) was NOT straigh-forward.
There are at least five types of audio connector that I know of for CD-ROM drives[4].
As usual, Vogons community proved itself an invaluable drawing summarizing (almost?) all of them[5]. I was able to assess I needewd a "Panasonic" audio cable.
The CR523b drive was delivered without drivers. The Vogons community saved me again with a CR563.ZIP rightly available[6].
Decades away had made me forget about the utter "duct tape and bubble gum"-ness of configuring a CD-ROM drive on DOS. These devices require not one but two drivers!
The first one is specific to the drive (in this case it is CDMKE.SYS). It must be loaded in CONFIG.SYS as follows. Notice the SBP flag which MUST match the sound blaster controller I/O base address we saw in the previous page.
DEVICE=C:\MKECR\CDMKE.SYS /D:MSCD000 /SBP:220 /Q
The second part tells the OS where to find the drive. This is done via AUTOEXEC.BAT as follows. The driver MSCDEX.EXE is generic and comes with DOS. Notice how the /D flag must match what was in CONFIG.SYS.
C:\DOS\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD001 /M:15 /V /D:MSCD000
The M flag decides how many buffers to use to cache the path table of the CD-ROM[7]. Your guess about what is the best value here is as good as mine.
| ^ | [1] | Also this CD-ROM was too large for the case, it prevented smooth opening. It was a miracle I did not break the case when I opened it.. |
| ^ | [2] | DOS Days: Sound Blaster 16 |
| ^ | [3] | Matsushita MKE |
| ^ | [4] | CD audio connectors |
| ^ | [5] | CD Audio cable question |
| ^ | [6] | Matsushita MKE DOS driver v4.12 for CR-562/563 CD-ROM drives |
| ^ | [7] | Mscdex command |
