Power to disc drives, but no data reading

[FLaTLiN3D]

I'm having troubles with two disc drives I installed into my computer....

I currently have 2 plugged into my computer (Both internal). One is a CD drive, and the other a DVD.

Now, at first I had two CD drives installed and they worked fine, however I needed my computer to read DVD's also... So I removed one of my CD drives and installed a DVD drive. They both have power to them, however my computer doesn't seem to be able to communicate with them in a sense of transferring data. It doesn't even recognize the original CD drive that I had installed. I don't receive errors, they are simply non-responsive.

Optical Drives
    No optical disk drives detected

Help would be much appreciated,
FLaTLiN3D

 

[WindowsStar]

Are the drives IDE or SATA? If they are IDE you need to make sure the jumpers are set to MASTER and SLAVE or if you have a CS cable then the jumpers on both drives are set to CS.

If they are SATA there are no jumpers to set.

 

[FLaTLiN3D]

Does it matter which one is the master and which is the slave? I don't see how it would they both do the exact same job except with a different type of disc... I thought Master and Slave was only for HDD's?

 

[WindowsStar]

Does it matter which one is the master and which is the slave? I don't see how it would they both do the exact same job except with a different type of disc... I thought Master and Slave was only for HDD's?

Any device that is and IDE must be set to MASTER or SLAVE if you are using them together on one (1) cable. Typically CD-Rom and DVD-Rom will share a cable.

It does not matter which is MASTER or SLAVE as long as they are not both the same.

 

[FLaTLiN3D]

I'm not sure if I'm using the correct cable.... It looks alright but it doesn't say "Master" and "Slave" and "CPU Board" on it like the one I use for my HDD's... Here, take a look.



On the next picture, it's plugged in on the other side of this cable... I couldn't get a picture of it because it's such a small space.



FLaTLiN3D

 

[Dwarf]

You are using an IDE cable.



You should set the jumpers on your drives as follows: Firstly, for the drive connected to the end (black) connector, this should be MA. Secondly, for the drive connected to the middle (grey) connector, this should be SL. The blue connector should go to your motherboard. Incidentally, I don't recommend the Cable Select (CS) option. Note that the illustration shows the typical jumper positions, however you need to check your actual drive because some might be in a different order. I also recommend the use of 80-conductor cables as opposed to 40-conductor ones, and I use the rounded versions as these are easier to install.



If using a 40-conductor cable, there is often no colour coding on the connectors. However, on all cables the middle connector is not actually in the middle, but rather towards one end, roughly splitting the cable into 1/3 and 2/3. The end of the cable where the connectors are closest together goes to the devices, whereas the other end goes to the motherboard. The individual connector positions and connections are still as described above.

 

[pebbly]

Excellent information Dwarf , very easy to understand

 

[FLaTLiN3D]

Very good information indeed and thank you very much... Except the IDE I'm attempting to use, all of the ends of it are black, there is no white or blue. I'll check and see if I have one that is colored like that....

FLaTLiN3D

Edit: All of the cords that I have are all black at the tips.....

 

[Dwarf]

It doesn't matter about the colouring. The relative positions of the connectors on the cable should help to identify which is which, as per the description given in the last paragraph of my previous post.

 

[FLaTLiN3D]

Right, but the cord plugged into it now is set up like this....

1===2===========3

The numbers represent the connectors...
1. CD Drive
2. DVD Drive
3. CPU

Should I just try a different IDE cable? Perhaps it's defective.

FLaTLiN3D

 

[Dwarf]

OK. Now check the jumpers on the drives. Drive 1 should be MA and drive 2 should be SL. If that doesn't work, then it could be the cable.

 

[Aphelion]

1. CD Drive... set jumper to MA
2. DVD Drive set jumper to SL

btw, that's an older style low-density IDE cable, you might have better performance with a high density cable that has ends colored like the one in Dwarf's post. Black/Gray/Blue

Ap

 

[Dwarf]

Any luck? What about temporarily disconnecting the DVD drive to see if the other CD drive is detected (simply remove the cables). Of course, it is quite possible (but unlikely) that you have damaged the cable when installing the DVD drive in the first place. In that case, I recommend trying a new cable, preferably one of the rounded type.

 

[FLaTLiN3D]

Ok I'll try that right now, I was mistaken earlier when I said that all the of jumpers are black, they are indeed Blue, White, and black, I simply had to unplug them to see it. I will unplug to dvd drive now to see if the CD drive is working properly by itself.

EDIT: Okay I unplugged the DVD drive and replaced it with a different CD drive.... My computer at least knows that this drive is there, however it refuses to recognize the original CD drive that I had in.

Although it still does not show up in "My Computer"....

Optical Drives
A@APA CD-R ATA Device
Media Type UNKNOWN
Name A@APA CD-R ATA Device
Availability Running/Full Power
Capabilities Random Access, Supports Removable Media
Config Manager Error Code Device cannot start
Config Manager User Config FALSE
Media Loaded FALSE
Status Error



I own several IDE cables, but I've never even seen one of the rounded type
Are there such things as 'universal' disc drives? That can read and write both dvd's and cd's?

 

[WindowsStar]

Ok, since you have the black/white/blue cable you need to set both drives to CS (cable select) The cable will make the drive selections for you.

 

[FLaTLiN3D]

Ok, since you have the black/white/blue cable you need to set both drives to CS (cable select) The cable will make the drive selections for you.

How am I supposed to do that when my computer doesn't seem to acknowledge their presence?

FLaTLiN3D

 

[WindowsStar]

Ok, since you have the black/white/blue cable you need to set both drives to CS (cable select) The cable will make the drive selections for you.

How am I supposed to do that when my computer doesn't seem to acknowledge their presence?

FLaTLiN3D

We are collectively thinking the reason the computer does not acknowledge the drives is because they are not setup correctly. Once the jumpers are in the right place with luck the BIOS and then the OS will see the drives.

 

[Aphelion]

Ok, since you have the black/white/blue cable you need to set both drives to CS (cable select) The cable will make the drive selections for you.

How am I supposed to do that when my computer doesn't seem to acknowledge their presence?

FLaTLiN3D

Have you in fact adjusted the jumpers on the back of both the CD and DVD drives?

Ap

 

[FLaTLiN3D]

I think it may have simply been a defective cable. I took out the one I had an put one in from the CD drive to my motherboard and it works like a charm. Though the cord is only 2 sided, no place for a SL.

FLaTLiN3D