[Tfug] DVD-RW part II

[Jim March]

OK, there's your problem.  Each IDE "chain" (from each motherboard IDE
connector port) needs a master drive item of some sort, to "control"
that chain.  If there's a second drive on a chain, that needs to be
"slave".  Almost all IDE cables you'll find today will be "straight" -
no twisted section between the two drive plugs.  A twisted section
means the cable can select between slave and master - the outer drive
will be the master, and both on that chain need to be set to "cable
select".

So: there must be a master SOMEHOW, either due to a cable twist or a
master select - on each chain.  You can have two masters, one on each
chain, or run one chain with two drives, master and slave.  Three
drives mean two masters with one having a slave.

Finally, if the cable is straight, the position of the "master"
doesn't matter - it can be on either drive plug on the cable.  Only if
the cable has a twist section does position matter.

Jim

On Nov 10, 2007 1:15 PM, Predrag Punosevac <punosevac72 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Earl,
> Thank you so much.
> The pins on my DVD-RW are set for slave. I really doupt that setting them
> to center or master would make any difference.
>
> Now I do not know if you missed this line
> but the hard-drive and DVD-RW are set on different IDE controllers.
> Hard-drive is on the master IDE controller apparently with capacity UDE 66
> and
> DVD-RW is on the second slave IDE controller which has UDE capacity of 33.
> Due to the box configuration (mini ATX) there is no chance unless I get
> some custom cables
> to have both DVD and hard-drive on the same IDE controller.
>
>
> The other DeLL computer which has DVD-R which works flawlessly had both
> hard-drive and the DVD-R on
> the same IDE controller but as I said earlier it has different BIOS.
>
> Thanks
> Predrag
>
>
>
> On Sat, 10 Nov 2007 07:38:28 -0700, Earl <earljviolet at juno.com> wrote:
>
> > Well, if it can RW, the pinning is probably OK, but here goes.
> >
> > Looking at the back, the 3 pins are usually (I've never seen
> > different).  Left is cable select (CS); center, slave (SL); right,
> > master (MA).  Sometimes cable select works and sometimes not.  Sometimes
> > both the hard drive and CD/DVD need to be set at CS.  It sounds like
> > things are set right if you can RW DVDs and use the HD.
> >
> > That's the extent of my knowledge/experience.  Check the capacitors on
> > the mother board.  If they are going bad, that will cause some
> > strangeness, if not now, later.  Also being a Dell accounts for some
> > strangeness.
> >
> > Sometimes a CD/DVD seems to work in one machine and not another at the
> > BIOS level too.  No explanation.
> >
> > Earl
> > "God made man, Sam Colt made men equal."
> > "The fates guide him who will, him who won't they drag" Spengler
> >
> > -- "Predrag Punosevac" <punosevac72 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I just forgot to say in my previous message that the only thing I have
> > not
> > tried is to set jumpers
> > on the DVD-RW in some other position. I left them as they were when I got
> > DVD-RW.
> > Could anybody tell me something more about those options.
> >
> > Thank
> > Predrag
> >
> >
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