Here are some of the most frequently asked questions:

Technical Questions
Advanced Technical Questions
Registration Questions

Technical Questions:

• Q: Using Windows NT/2000/XP I see each of my CDROM drives twice in WinDAC32?
  A: WinDAC32 is able to access the CDROM drives with two different methods on NT based operating systems.
  The first method is by using an ASPI manager, but unfortunately there is no ASPI manager installed by default on these operating systems.
  The second method uses NT internal functions, but this only works if you are working with an user account that has administrator privileges. The second disadvantage of this method is that the 'burst' copy mode does not work.
  You can hide the drives you do not want to use using the 'Drives' configuration of the 'View' menu.

• Q: Using Windows NT/2000/XP I can't use the 'burst' copy mode of WinDAC32?
  A: You have to install an ASPI Manager to use this copy mode. For details see last question.

• Q: Can I use WinDAC32 to copy tracks from an invalid mastered CD?
  A: Yes, but not all CDROM drives do support this feature. Make sure that you have enabled the new TOC format in the WinDAC32 drive configuration. Now all the tracks should show up correctly and can be copied.

• Q: I have a Plextor CD-Writer. When I try to copy invalid mastered CD's I get always the message 'invalid mode for this track'. What should I do?
  A: In this case (and only in this) configure the Plextor writer in WinDAC32 to be used as 'PLEXTOR'.

• Q: I have a Plextor CD-Writer. What should I do to use the enhanced error detection?
  A: In this case configure your Plextor writer in WinDAC32 to be used as 'ATAPI'.

• Q: I can't install the self-extracting installation file of WinDAC32, what should I do?
  A: In most cases the installation file has been corrupted. Download the installation file again and make sure that the file you got has the same size as written on the download page.
  During my tests with Win98 I found that sometimes without any special reason the installer does not automatically find the installation files. In this case choose browse and select the folder in your TEMP directory where the files have been extracted to.
  On the other hand it is possible that the installer completely fails. In this rare case download the wdac155.zip archive and install the program manually.

• Q: Is there a version of WinDAC32 available, which is working with ATAPI (IDE) drives?
  A: Yes, the current versions should work with all ATAPI drives supporting Digital Audio Extraction according to the ATAPI specification (but the required command is not mandatory for all drives).

• Q: How can I convert wave files to MP3 with WinDAC32?
  Q: Can WinDAC32 copy playstation CD's?
  Q: Can I use WinDAC32 to convert my MP3 files back to CDDA?
  Q: Can I use WinDAC32 to write directly to CDR's?
  A: You can't. No. No. No.!!!

• Q: Each time I start copying a track with WinDAC32, it aborts and tells me something about "Aborted Command. Loss of Streaming". What should I do?
  A: Try to select a lower copy speed, or use the normal or sectorsynch copy mode of WinDAC32.

• Q: I have drive 'XYZ' (ATAPI/IDE) and I always get the message that the drive cannot extract audio data (and something for SCSI CDROM drives)?
  A: If your drive is configured in WinDAC32 as an ATAPI drive this message is true. Because an ATAPI CDROM drive has a defined command to extract audio data, but not all CDROM drive have to support this feature.

• Q: Is it possible to copy direct to the MP3 Format?
  A: Yes, but you need external programs for this. You can either use the BladeEnc PlugIn (see the PlugIn section for details) or the Fraunhofer Audio CoDec, but to get satisfying results you should buy the professional version auf the Fraunhofer MP3 Audio CoDec, included in the MPEG Audio Producer Professional available from http://www.opticom.de.

• Q: Another MP3 question?
  A: Ask someone else!

• Q: How can I uninstall WinDAC32?
  A: If you installed it with the provided INF files (Inst95.inf/InstNT.inf), you can simply uninstall it like any other Windows program with the "Add/Remove Programs" Applet of the control panel. Otherwise simply delete all files in the directory and remove the HKCU\Software\CASH key from the registry.

• Q: I have a drive which should work with WinDAC32, but I still couldn't copy any audio tracks (sometimes it starts but it never goes further than 0 percent)?
  Q: WinDAC32 works with my drive with Windows 95, but I couldn't get it to work with Windows NT?
  A: I think this is a problem of some drivers for some special host adapters (like the old Adaptec 1542). These drivers doesn't return the correct amount of supported memory per transfer. You can see this in WinDAC32 if the sectors per read entry in the drive configuration (on the copy tab) is 0, but sometimes it is correctly set to 27. So try to change this value to 27 and below (in the case that the correct value of 27 is detected and the drive couldn't copy, a value of 26 should work).

• Q: Is there a special commandline interface to run WinDAC32 in a batch file?
  A: No, currently there is only the possibility to run other commands controlled by WinDAC32. Commercial users could license the library for use in their own products.

• Q: I want to use WinDAC32 with my ATAPI CDROM drive under Windows NT, but it shows an empty drive window and says "no CD inserted". After refreshing the display I see all the tracks but I'am not allowed to play or copy a track?
  A: If this happens with the version 1.4 or above install an ASPI Manager.

• Q: I'm using an ATAPI CDROM and WinDAC32 doesn't detect the drive?
  Q: WinDAC32 has worked with my ATAPI CDROM before, but now it isn't detected any more?
  Q: Each time I start WinDAC32, I get a message complaining something about WNASPI32.DLL?
  Q: Everything similar to the above...
  A: See the ASPI Setup Instructions for details and make sure that your CDROM drives are not working in the DOS compability mode (maybe there is a DOS CDROM driver installed in your CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT).

• Q: I get background noise whatever I use for the copy mode. What can I do?
  A: Buy a new CDROM drive.

• Q: What are the best settings for CDROM drive 'XYZ'?
  A: You have to try yourself, this differs on each system.

• Q: Is my CDROM drive 'XYZ' supported?
  A: Try it and you'll see it.

• Q: I use Windows NT and each time I start WinDAC32 I get a message about the ASPI configuration.
  A: Maybe you have installed an ASPI manager before and removed it later. In this case it is possible that the registry entries for the ASPI manager are still there. Start the registry editor and remove the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ASPI32\Parameters.

• Q: I have the problem XYZ but I'm using a hacked version of WinDAC32. Can you guarantee me that this error is not in the registered version?
  A: Try the original release and you'll see!!!

• Q: What does it mean if the value in the copyprotection column of the track list is set to "yes"?
  A: This flag doesn't have any effect on the functionality of WinDAC32. It would only be used if you try copy this CD from an audio CD-Player to another digital recorder (like DAT, MD, Audio CD-Recorder) over a digital connection (SPDIF interface).

• Q: I get thousands of errors about an "Interrupted Read Process at sector xxx" ("Unterbrechung des Lesevorgangs bei Sektor xxx"). How can I fix this?
  A: This is no error, this is only a warning!!! If your drive is not able to position exactly to the point to continue after an interruption (you'll hear clicks and pops - normaly you have to use the sectorsynchronisation mode in this case), you can see that there is something wrong if you get this warning in the burst copy mode. If you don't have such problems you can deactivate this warning again ("Report buffer underruns in Burst Mode").

• Q: Does WinDAC32 support "Jitter Correction"?
  A: No, because I don't know what "Jitter" should be. The only thing that can be corrected is the sectorshift caused by inaccuarte CDROM drives. This is better called "sectorsynchronisation" and this is exactly the thing what other programs will do, but only WinDAC32 calls it by it's real name. For details about the copy mode refer to the documentation.

Advanced Technical Questions:

• Q: On Windows NT I can see that during WinDAC32 runs a lot of Kernel memory is allocated and never freed, even if I exit WinDAC32. Sometimes the whole system crashes. Is this a bug of WinDAC32?
  A: No, this is surely a bug of CDROM.SYS in Windows NT 4. You can help by disabling all drives with a drive letter in WinDAC32 and use only the drives shown over the ASPI manager. This bug is fixed with the SP4 for Windows NT 4.

• Q: Sometimes the program seems to hang and I cannot work any longer - even the system seems to hang?
  A: You should wait some minutes. There might be a reading problem and it could last a few minutes until all timeouts have been processed.

• Q: In Windows NT the disc cache is growing and growing if I copy a track to disk, what can I do?
  A: Not so much for the moment, I will add a new setting to fix this in one of the next versions.

• Q: What value is the best for the number of memory blocks for the ring buffer?
  A: There is no general answer for this question:
  Choosing a lower value can cause that the reading process is running out of buffers very often (especially when used with a slow Audio CoDec).
  A high value could enable the read process to read a whole track to the memory first.

• Q: What use has the high thread priority option?
  A: Only that the display thread gets more CPU time to follow the reading process if you are using a CPU intensive Audio CoDec. The overall time is nearly the same.

Registration Questions:

• Q: I want to register, can I pay with credit cards?
  A: Yes, but only using the online registration system, see next question for details.

• Q: Is there any way to purchase WinDAC32 online?
  A: Yes, see here for english users and here for german users.

• Q: To which account should I transfer the registration fee?
  A: Only german customers should pay by bank transfer, the necessary information for this is in the file Liesmich.rtf. But don't transfer the money to this account if you want to register online.

• Q: Why does it last so long before I get my registration information?
  A: Normally it takes up to two weeks before the registration will reach the customer, but this differs on the amount of registered version each week. Note this is not my main job. If it is taking longer, I could be on a holiday.

• Q: I'm registered and I noticed that a new version is available, how can I get an updated version?
  A: The updates for versions 1.X are for free if I can send them to you by email. If you don't have an email account send a disk with a self addressed envelope with the correct postage to me.