[rokas]

I just bought the Kama Connect 2 device. There are 2 devices connected to it - a 2.5" IDE HDD drive and a brandnew 5,25" IDE DVDRW Rewriter (LG H55N).

Everything went fine, reading/writing to HDD or burning standard 4,7GB DVDs without any problems.

Yesterday, the external DVDRWDrive began to do weird things. MY friend came nearby and wanted to burn some DVDs, so I connected the DVD drive via KAMA2 to his laptop. The first two DVDs were burnt without a problem but later on, on the same laptop (without power outage, disconnection...) I couldn't burn a single DVD.

Each burn attempt ended with a "DMA-driver error, CRC error" thus making the process a failure. I thought it was just a stupid coincidence or bad media and tried to burn other DVDs - but without a chance. Each attempt ended with failure. Since this error continued on my laptop too, I guess something must have gone wrong. Either the KAMA2 had been somehow damaged or my brandnew DVDRW has a problem.

Time after time, the failure occurs (even in DVD burning test mode) - I have made different tests with different media (I just use the best media available here, verbatims, benqs, sony). I used various burning speeds, various USB ports, various jumper settings - the problem persists even at 8speed dvd burning. The problem occurs usually when about 25 to 55 percent of burning is done.

On the other day, nero refused to show speeds in speed setting requester higher than 8 for media I used to write with 12 or more.... Moreover, when I tried the "determine maximum speed" option, my hard drive (the 2,5" one - connected via KAMA2) showed speeds around 8... (Usually it transfers with speeds around 20MB/s=12x DVD burning) and while test burning the drive's internal buffer jumped wildly even there was enough data in nero's ultra buffer.

I plugged out the cables, reinserted everything and ... the 12,16 and 20 speeds were again there. The 2,5"HDD suddenly operated at 14+ speeds.

Really weird.

Could this be because of insufficient power in electrical outlet?

Or does windows maintain somehow the DMA mode for devices connected via USB2? (I cant check the DMA mode because both devices are connected via USB2...)

I took a look at different forums where users wrote about this problem but they usually had this error with internal IDE devices/jumper or DMA settings.

Is there someone who knows what this "DMA-driver error, CRC error" means? How to avoid it while using KAMA2? Please help!

Many thanx in advance.

[Shinigami]

Hi,

The problem is easy to explain, if you would read the manual =)
It is not supported or recommended to use 2 IDE devices at same time!

This is the main reason, why you got so much of a trouble there. IDE 2,5" and 3,5"/5,25" are using same port and bandwidth so you actually should not even connect 2 IDE devices at the same time. So in the end you keep overlaoding the Kama Connect 2 like that and errors accure.

So please try to burn a DVD while not having 2.5" IDE connected. I hope that this problem is solved =)

Let me know if you have any questions.

Cheers,
Shinigami

[rokas]

Originally Posted by Shinigami

Hi,

The problem is easy to explain, if you would read the manual =)
It is not supported or recommended to use 2 IDE devices at same time!

This is the main reason, why you got so much of a trouble there. IDE 2,5" and 3,5"/5,25" are using same port and bandwidth so you actually should not even connect 2 IDE devices at the same time. So in the end you keep overlaoding the Kama Connect 2 like that and errors accure.

So please try to burn a DVD while not having 2.5" IDE connected. I hope that this problem is solved =)

Let me know if you have any questions.

Cheers,
Shinigami

Hello.

Not so easy to explain!

Even though I know what is written on the box/manual (NO 2 IDE devices at the same time)- I simply wanted to give a try - I had my 2,5" IDE HDD and the DVDRW connected to KAMA2 in the same time the whole week - burnt about 10 DVDs and no problem ever occured.

Then, when my friend came, I connected the DVDRW via KAMA2 to his notebook and then the problems started. There was no other device connected to KAMA2, only the DVDRW.

The problem has continued since then, with or without the 2,5" IDE device connected. Could the device be somehow damaged?

Faithfully, rokas

[Shinigami]

Hi,

Well, there is a reason behind it, when the Manual and carton says, that you should not connect 2 unit's at once

Were you using same DVDRW Drive all the time?

I assume that you overloaded the BUS or the unit itself with 2 devices. It also happens that Windows is really the trouble maker. S-ATA worked on my testing machine all the time, but suddenly w/o any particular change of software or hardware, it stopped working on that machine. On a different machine it works fine. So my recommendation is to try at least 3 different PCs.

Cheers,
Shinigami

[rokas]

Originally Posted by Shinigami

Hi,

Well, there is a reason behind it, when the Manual and carton says, that you should not connect 2 unit's at once

Were you using same DVDRW Drive all the time?

I assume that you overloaded the BUS or the unit itself with 2 devices. It also happens that Windows is really the trouble maker. S-ATA worked on my testing machine all the time, but suddenly w/o any particular change of software or hardware, it stopped working on that machine. On a different machine it works fine. So my recommendation is to try at least 3 different PCs.

Cheers,
Shinigami

Well, I used the very same DVDRW all the time.

And I will point this out once and again - there were no problems when using the two at the same time, on my machine.

The problems started after I disconnected KAMA2 from my machine, unplugged it from the electrical outlet and then I connected to my friend's laptop. Kama2 was connected to this laptop with only 1 device (the DVDRW). I burnt 2 DVDs there and after that, the problems with burning started. I have no idea how I could overload the device since on the other machine I had been using it only with one device.

My question was whether the KAMA2 could be damaged.
Your answer was , that I could overload the bus - is this overload "deadly"?
Could there be a permanent damage to the KAMA2?

I have to say that I have made further tests with the device and no problems since last errors occured. Of course, I did these tests with only 1 device connected (DVDRW). Hopefully, this will last some time

rokas

[rokas]

to be further more confused, i used my dvdrw drive with a borrowed, brand new scythe kama connect 2. the drive worked flawlessly (burning, reading), if connected alone to kama2.

BUT: when we connected the burner AND a SATA 3,5"HDD to KAMA2 (this combination is allowed :-)) ), once again, the burn process failed. the data source for burning came from the SATA HDD.

again the same "dma driver error, crc error".

we tried everything:

jumper settings. (as for the DVD drive master, slave) as for the SATA HDD (1,5Gb operation mode restriction)
re-flashing the dvdrw drive.
different kama2 startup modes. (kama started first, then windows - windows first, then kama...)
different burning software. (the same error in nero or alcohol 120 at the very beginning of a burn process.)

nothing helped.

the SATA HDD was a 500GB Seagate Barracuda SATA II ST3500630AS.
If connected alone, it works with KAMA2 flawlessly.

The result is weird - both devices, if connected alone, work without problems. If connected together, burning fails....

tomorrow, im gonna use a different DVDRW Drive and a different HDD to rule out the source of this FREAK problem...

[rokas]

So, further tests showed, that there is no problem with my devices, either the KAMA2 has some firmware error or windows is buggy.

I tried 2 absolutely different devices - a DVD Writer (LG GSA H21L) and a SATA Harddisk (Western Digital WD800JD).

The situation repeated itself. If connected alone, full functionality. If connected together, dma driver error, crc error. Tested on 3 different computers and 2 KAMA connect devices....

Now tell me what am I doing wrong....

I will try to generate a report from a utility that records all communication among devices that are connected via usb. maybe that will help...

[Shinigami]

Hi rokas,

Thanks for the very detailed report and your effort.

This is really strange and I would like to find out what is the problem. First of all, I never tried to burn a DVD from a HDD that is connected to the Kama Connect 2. Seems like I have to test this on my own to let you know my feedback and results.

I'm sorry for the trouble, but USB, SATA and IDE devices are also all summed up in Windows and it is sometimes difficult to see, what was the real problem there. I will also ask my colleauge to check the same thing under Linux, since it is stable and a relyable OS.

It is really useful to know, that jumper are not the problem here. Furthermore it might be that the S-ATA and DVD-RW Drive consume more Ampere than the AC-Adapter supplies, but this is something that should not be the case. I will run the tests ASAP, please allow a delay of a couple days, because there is too much going on during Christmas.

Thanks for your understanding.

[rokas]

Originally Posted by Shinigami

Hi rokas,

Thanks for the very detailed report and your effort.

This is really strange and I would like to find out what is the problem. First of all, I never tried to burn a DVD from a HDD that is connected to the Kama Connect 2. Seems like I have to test this on my own to let you know my feedback and results.

I'm sorry for the trouble, but USB, SATA and IDE devices are also all summed up in Windows and it is sometimes difficult to see, what was the real problem there. I will also ask my colleauge to check the same thing under Linux, since it is stable and a relyable OS.

It is really useful to know, that jumper are not the problem here. Furthermore it might be that the S-ATA and DVD-RW Drive consume more Ampere than the AC-Adapter supplies, but this is something that should not be the case. I will run the tests ASAP, please allow a delay of a couple days, because there is too much going on during Christmas.

Thanks for your understanding.

Hi,

glad to hear these news, at least someone who cares about the problem.
I really would not like to return the device back to the shop where I bought it (due to the above described problem) cause I like it very much!

I will try to do some further research, will see what it brings. (Other burners, other HDDs, other windows, some error reports...)

CU laters.

[Surikan]

Hi rokas,

I did some test last week and everything works well.
I used: LG GSA-4160B DVD-RW (with the latest firmware) and
Maxtor DiamondMax 20 STM3160811AS SATA HDD.

I had no problems while burning from HDD to DVDs (both connected to Kama Connect 2).

OS: Windows XP Pro, SP2, most MS updates till 09.2007 are installed.



Btw: I created 7 DVDs (tried both DVD-Rs and DVD-RWs) max. write speed 8x.