Plextor Software Installation and Operation

YOUR TASK:	Install software onto your computer system to enable the CD-ROM drive 
to operate optimally within your specific operating system.

YOUR OBJECTIVE:	Enable your CD-ROM drive to communicate with the rest of your 
computer system.

A device driver is a software program which allows your computer to interact with your CD-
ROM drive. If you do not use a device driver, or you use an outdated version of the required 
device driver, you will not be able to operate your CD-ROM drive. The lack of a device driver, 
or the use of an improper version of a device driver, are the most common causes of calls to 
Plextor's Technical Support Department.


DOS/Windows 3.1 & 3.11

With your Plextor CD-ROM drive you will find a floppy disk labeled "PowerPLEX32 CD-ROM Device 
Driver and Utilities." You will need this disk to properly install 
and operate your Plextor CD-ROM drive in a DOS/Windows environment. Plextor Manager will 
also be useful when installing Windows 95 from a CD-ROM on a new computer where a CD-
ROM device driver has not yet been installed. Windows 95 provides a standard 32-bit device 
driver, so once it has been installed, you will disable the DOS device driver. 

Installation Procedure

Plextor Manager may be installed from either DOS or Microsoft Windows. This software was 
designed for your Plextor 4PleX, 4PleX-256, 4PleX Plus , 6PleX or 8Plex 12Plex CD-ROM drive,
and will not support CD-ROM drives made by other manufacturers. Prior to installing PowerPLEX32, 
you must first install the CD-ROM drive and SCSI host adapter. You can refer to Chapter 8 of this 
manual and the SCSI host adapter manual for instructions.

If your drive includes a Plextor supplied SCSI host adapter, programs provided by the host 
adapter manufacturer do not need to be installed. If you purchased your drive without a Plextor 
supplied SCSI host adapter, you must load the ASPI manager before installing PowerPLEX32. 
The ASPI manager should have been supplied by the manufacturer of your SCSI host adapter. If 
you do not find this file, please contact the manufacturer of your SCSI host adapter to obtain 
it. If you are having difficulties obtaining this file, please contact Plextor's Technical 
Support Department:

	USA	Tel. 1-800-886-3935	FAX. 408-986-1010	BBS. 408-986-1569
	Japan	Tel. 81-3-3847-8281	FAX. 81-3-3847-8288
	Europe	Tel. 32-2-725-5522	FAX. 32-2-725-9495	BBS. 32-2-720-4957

Installing from DOS:

	1)	Insert the Plextor floppy disk into drive A: or B:
	2)	Type A:DOSINST (or B:DOSINST)
	3)	Follow the instructions in the install program
	4)	Remove the floppy disk
	5)	Reboot your computer by pressing Del while holding down Ctrl and Alt


Installing from Microsoft Windows 3.1:

	1)	Insert the Plextor floppy disk into drive A: or B:
	2)	Select File and Run from the Program Manager menu bar. When the dialog box 	
		appears, type 		A:DOSINST (or B:DOSINST)
	3)	Follow the instructions in the install program
	4)	Remove the floppy disk
	5)	Exit Windows
	6)	Reboot your computer by pressing Del while holding down Ctrl and Alt


The next time you load Windows, icons for the Plextor Utility will be added and you will be 
asked if you wish to have Plextor Manager added to your start-up group. If your answers is yes,
it will be loaded each time you start Windows. Some features of the Plextor Manager, such as 
AutoPlay and the data transfer rate monitor, are available only when the manager is loaded.

Installing from Microsoft Windows95:

	1)	Insert the Plextor floppy disk into drive A: or B:
	2)	Select 3.5 FD from My Computer. When the dialog box 	
		appears, make double click "SETUP" icon
	3)	Follow the instructions in the install program
	4)	Remove the floppy disk

Now you can see PLEXTOR group icon on your program.


DOS Device Driver and Plextor Manager

The Plextor device driver is essential for proper operation of your CD-ROM drive. Plextor is the
first CD-ROM drive manufacturer to include its own driver for SCSI drives in order to ensure 
optimum performance. Installation of Plextor Manager loads your device driver and gives you 
access to various CD-ROM drive-related utilities.

DOS CD-ROM Utilities (PLEXTOR.EXE)

Many of the utilities provided with your CD-ROM drive (PLEXTOR.EXE) are DOS executable. 
They may be run from a DOS command prompt or automatically loaded when you boot your 
system by placing them into your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.

The DOS utilities are used by typing the word "Plextor" followed by a space and then a slash and
an option code. If you have more than one Plextor drive installed in your computer, and wish to 
limit applicability to a single drive, you may add a qualifier at the end, for example:

	PLEXTOR /option [d:]

Command line options:

	/A	Start Video Acceleration <<default>>_This command starts the Plextor CD-ROM 
drive video acceleration. Refer to the Video Acceleration section on page 40 for more 
information.

	/D	Disable Video Acceleration

	/S	Display Driver Status_This command will display various status information about
the CD-ROM drive(s).

	/E	Eject Disc_This command sends a software eject command to the CD-ROM drive. 
If the drive is not locked, the disc will be ejected. You can use this instead of the eject 
button on the front of the CD-ROM drive.

	/L	Lock Drive_This command locks all (or specified) Plextor CD-ROM drives 
connected to the system and prevents ejection of a CD-ROM disc either manually or by using a 
software eject command. This feature is useful for drives in public areas where discs are 
subject to loss or misplacement.

	/U	Unlock Drive_This command unlocks the drive and allows ejection of the 
CD-ROM discs.

	/M	Toggle Monaural Enhancement_If only one speaker is operating in a CD-ROM 
application, it is probably using monaural sound, typical of older multimedia applications. 
This command enhances monaural sound by sending the single channel of sound data to both the 
left and right speakers.

	/?	List of commands

If a drive letter is not used, the operation will be performed on all CD-ROM drives. 

For example:

	PLEXTOR	-start acceleration for all Plextor drives
	PLEXTOR /L	-lock all CD-ROM drives
	PLEXTOR /L E:	-lock /CD-ROM drive E:

Plextor Manager for Microsoft Windows 3.1 & 3.11

The Windows-based Plextor Manager provides access to all utilities in a graphical user interface
type environment. It also provides access to additional utilities not available in DOS. Plextor 
Manager is divided into four different pages or sheets. To switch pages, click on the notebook 
tabs at the bottom of the window.

Drives Page
Selecting Drives_The Drives page displays all Plextor CD-ROM drives in your system and 
allows you to select which drive you would like to manipulate using the other pages. If you have
only one Plextor drive in your system, selecting that drive is automatic. If you have more than 
one Plextor drive connected to your computer, you may click on the drive you wish to manipulate 
and then go to the other three pages to customize various features and performance aspects of 
the highlighted drive. This Drives page displays the drive letter, SCSI ID, model, cache size, 
ROM revision and current CD-ROM disc for each Plextor CD-ROM drive in your system.

Video Acceleration
Selecting this option enables and applies Plextor's Video Acceleration utility to any Plextor 
drive in the system. Refer to the Video Acceleration description later in this section for more 
information.

Transfer Rate Monitor
Selecting this option causes the title bar or icon title of the Plextor Manager to display the 
current transfer rate demanded of the CD-ROM drive. This option is only available when the 
Plextor Manager is running.

AutoPlay Enabled
Selecting this option will automatically start audio playback any time you insert a CD audio 
disc, and automatically execute CD-ROM discs that contain an AUTORUN.INF file and CD Plus and 
Windows 95 disks designed for AutoPlay. This option is only available when the Plextor 
Manager is running.

Drive Setup Page
The Drive Setup page allows you to control the speed, spindown time, and eject functions of your
drive. The Speed Control option allows you to set your drive to any of its supported operating 
speeds. The Spindown Time option allows you to set the inactivity time before the CD-ROM drive 
stops spinning. Setting the spindown time to infinite will prevent your CD-ROM drive from 
cooling down and is not recommended. Selecting Prevent Eject will lock the CD-ROM disc in 
the drive. The Eject button will eject the disc unless Prevent Eject is enabled.

Audio Setup Page
The Audio Setup page allows you to set basic audio output characteristics of your drive. Sound 
related options for non-audio CDs must be controlled via the software provided with your 
soundboard. The rear audio output of your CD-ROM drive is connected to the CD input of your 
sound card or any other amplified input/device to which it is connected. The options on this 
audio setup page control the signal to your sound card rather than the sound card itself. The 
Volume control will increase or decrease sound output to the audio connection on the back of the
drive. The software Volume control will adjust both the rear output and the headphone jack; the 
wheel knob volume control on the front of the CD-ROM drive adjusts only the headphone jack 
volume. With some soundboards, audio CDs might sound distorted if the drive's audio output 
level is too high for the soundboard CD input. If this is the case, you can decrease the drive's
audio volume and turn up the soundboard volume to eliminate distortion. Please note that this 
allows you to control the volume without having a soundboard software mixer. The Balance 
control will emphasize the left or right channel as you move the slider. If you wish sound from 
only one speaker, move the balance control all the way to the left or the right. With the Output
Channels control, you may reverse the left and right channels or listen to only one audio 
channel through both speakers.

CD Audio Page
The CD Audio page is a simple CD audio player for your Plextor CD-ROM drive. Features 
include: Play, Stop, Pause, Track Reverse, Reverse Scan, Forward Scan and Track Advance. 
Scan is a unique feature from Plextor that allows you to hear the audio track while you fast 
forward until you get to the desired location. You may scan a recording by clicking on and 
holding down the forward/reverse Scan buttons. The Track Advance button will automatically 
start the next audio track on the CD. The Track Reverse button will restart the current audio 
track. To start the previous audio track, quickly double-click the Reverse Track button.  The 
Capture button will load the Plextor Audio Capture Program. See the Audio Capture description 
later in this section.

Plextor Video Acceleration
Video acceleration is an optional utility of the Plextor device driver. To use your Plextor CD-
ROM drive in a DOS/Windows environment you need only the Plextor device driver (PLEXTOR.SYS), an
ASPI Manager for your interface board, and MSCDEX.EXE or CORELCDX.COM. The Plextor device driver
requires only 7K of memory. Enabling acceleration will require an additional 8K of memory. If 
available memory is limited, you should run the Plextor device driver without enabling 
acceleration. If you find that the acceleration does not improve your CD-ROM performance, or it
causes any disturbance to your system, you should disable it and use the Plextor driver without 
this option.

If you are using a PIO type SCSI controller (you probably are), use of acceleration will not 
improve performance. However, performance will increase significantly if you enable 
acceleration in conjunction with a BUS MASTERING SCSI controller, such as a BusLogic BT-540CF,
Adaptec AHA-1542CF, and many others. In a Bus Mastering environment, Plextor's acceleration 
feature will improve the transfer of data and significantly reduce CPU utilization. 
Best performance will be obtained with PCI adapters. Less improvement will result with VLB, 
EISA, and ISA adapters.

In DOS, acceleration will enhance performance when downloading large files, e.g., pictures, 
images, and PhotoCDs, from a CD-ROM disc. It will also improve performance of DOS-based 
games featuring graphics, animation or video read from the CD-ROM. In Windows, acceleration 
will enhance applications such as Video for Windows, software MPEG videos, QuickTime for 
Windows, animation, and any other multimedia graphics and large data files accessed from a 
CD-ROM.

Plextor Audio Capture Program for Windows 3.1 & 3.11
This utility allows you to capture CD audio tracks to Windows compatible *.WAV files on your 
hard drive. Clicking the Capture button on the CD Audio page will open the Plextor Audio 
Capture window where you may specify the Plextor CD-ROM drive in which the audio CD is 
inserted, the track number you wish to capture, and various quality and performance 
characteristics. The quality characteristics you specify will affect the size of the file 
created. The estimated file size will be displayed. The captured audio will yield a perfect 
digital copy of the audio on the disc with no jitter or distortion. Several choices are 
available for capture quality. Full CD quality audio is stereo 44.1kHz samples per second and 
16 bits per sample. This requires 172k per second of audio, or just over 10 megabytes per 
minute. You can reduce the file size of the capture by reducing the sample rate, capturing less
than full stereo sound or eliminating the 16-bit requirement in favor of an 8-bit capture. A 
very low quality capture requires 11k per second from a single channel at 8 bits per sample and
consumes one megabyte every 95 seconds.

If no tracks are listed in the Tracks Control, there are no audio tracks on the current disc. If
Channel is set to mono, the left and right channels will be digitally mixed.

Plextor Manager for Microsoft Windows95

The Windows-based Plextor Manager provides access to all utilities in a graphical user interface
type environment. It also provides access to additional utilities not available in DOS. Plextor 
Manager is divided into four different pages or sheets. To switch pages, click on the notebook 
tabs at the bottom of the window.

DRIVE CONTROL PAGE
This page controls transfer rate, drive speed, DISC LOCK/UNLOCK.

DISC INFO PAGE
This page indicates CD-ROM format which is inserted the drive such as CD Plus, Enhanced CD 
and so on.

AUDIO CONTROL
You can control audio output and balance of right and left.

A/V PLAYER
This is Media Player.

AUDIO CAPTURE
You also see Audio Capture icon or button on both your Plextor group icon and the bottom of each above 
page on Plextor manager. Using this, you can capture Audio CD-DA date and convert it to WAV file
automatically by data transfer speed. You can choose either whole song or just a part of song.  

Plextor can be contacted at:

PLEXTOR USA
4255 Burton Dr, Santa Clara, CA 95054
Phone: 408-980-1838 FAX: 408-986-1010 BBS: 408-986-1569
Toll Free: 800-886-3935	eMail: PLEXTOR.COM

PLEXTOR JAPAN
Ueno YHK Building, 7th Floor
7-6 Ueno 7-chome, Taito-ku, Tokyo 110
Phone: 81-3-3847-8281 FAX: 81-3-3847-8288

Plextor Europe
Excelsiorlaan 1, B-1930 Zaventem, Belgium
Phone: 32-2-725-5522 FAX: 32-2-725-9495 BBS: 32-2-720-4957
eMail : Plextor.Europe@Infoboard.be
