Chapter 5 Troubleshooting

This Chapter discusses the basics of troubleshooting the 1600L i.LINK drive.

A few words about CD-ROMs

The laser in a CD-ROM player reads the difference in reflectivity from one spot to the next. This difference in reflectivity is simply created from a difference in the depth of pits stamped into the CD-ROM Media.

Large production runs of CDs are stamped to create the pits. The Sony 1600L i.LINK drive burns recordable CD media, or alters the state of the substance within CD-RW media to change its reflectivity by means of a finely controlled laser beam.

The pits that the laser of the CD reader senses are either the one or the zero bits that are interpreted as data, music, photographs depending on the format with which the disc is recorded. The CD is covered in a transparent shield that the laser can read through or burn through. Scratches, smudges or particles on the bottom read/write surface can impede the functioning of your CD-RW, CD-R or CD-ROM device.

A few words about the i.LINK interface

Because the i.LINK interface allows for insertion and removal while the computer is running, it is easy to overlook whether the unit is connected. Please be sure the unit is connected before conducting other troubleshooting steps.

Continued

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