Questions:

1:   Will ISRCReader work with all CD drives?

2;   Will ISRCReader work on Windows 98?

3:   Windows Explorer sees my CD drive but ISRCReader does not - why?

4:   On some discs, I see all 0's as the ISRC code - why?

5:   On some discs, I see what is obviously not a valid ISRC code which is the same for each  track. What is this?

Answers:

1:   Unfortunately, not all CD drives are equal - they can vary considerably in their ability to extract ISRC codes. We strongly recommend using a Plextor drive - any version - any interface - they all perform very robustly in terms of ISRC extraction. We are gradually building up a small list of drives that can exhibit problems. The worst case we have found is a laptop drive (model number CRN 8245B) as fitted to both laptops and some small footprint desktop PCs. This drive should be avoided as it hangs after returning the ISRC code for Track 9. a drive. Please contact if you are having drive problems or need to see if your drive has known problems with us.

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2:   Windows 98SE is the earliest OS that will run ISRCReader.

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3:   ISRCReader needs an ASPI driver set installed. Use ASPICheck.exe to check that you have installed ASPI correctly. For Windows XP users, although Windows XP includes a form of ASPI you should still run the ASPI installer before installing ISRCReader as there are specific files that ISRCReader requires.

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4:   All 0's can sometimes be seen on CD-R or CD-RW discs which have been witten with CD burning software that has set the default ISRC code characters to '0'.

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5:   So called 'consumer' CD recorders (standalone audio CD writers) must, according to the Orange Book, write their serial number in the ISRC code data area every few seconds. This should not normally interfere with the ISRC code but some recorder manufacturers do not implement this feature correctly hence seeing the machine serial number as an ISRC code.

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