[hughes2009]

Ok, so I have a HP Pavilion a305w it came with a Sony CD Drive that let's me read and burn CDs. Yesterday I installed a Memorex DVD Drive with Lightscribe. After installing the new DVD Drive, my computer only detects the CD Drive. The light on the front of the DVD Drive comes on but it's not detected in the BIOS or under My Computer. So what I did was I unplugged the IDE Cable from the back of the CD Drive and left the other part of the cable connected to the DVD Drive and then it will show up in both the BIOS and under My Computer. I want to be able to use both the CD and DVD Drive. My dad has a similar set up except his DVD Drive is a standard Memorex DVD Drive but without Lightscribe.

What can I do to fix this problem?

[Rommel]

Hi,

Just to cover the bases.

I presume you have the CD jumper on master and attached to the end of the IDE cable.

And the DVD ROM set to slave and attached to the inner connector of the IDE cable.

If so to all the above, I would try a different IDE cable. I worked on someones Dell 5150 and it did the same thing. Replaced the IDE cable and it was corrected.

Rommel

[hughes2009]

I know hard drives have jumper settings, I didn't know CD and DVD Drives had them too.

[quackadilly]

I'm going to guess that your new drive is set to Master and is hooked up to the slave connector on your IDE cable.

[hughes2009]

I guess so. Basically what happened was I didn't know that CD and DVD drives had jumper settings. I thought that only hard drives had jumper settings. So I just opened the box and installed it. So it's set to whatever the default settings are and yes the DVD drive is on the slave connector of the IDE cable.

[snorg]

Set jumper on both CD and DVD to cable select.

Attach CD to the end of the IDE cable.
Attach DVD to the inner connector of the IDE cable.
This will cause CD to be master and DVD to be slave.

[quackadilly]

"Set jumper on both CD and DVD to cable select."



Excellent solution.

[snorg]

quackadilly said:

"Set jumper on both CD and DVD to cable select."





Excellent solution.

Its the only way to fly Mr.Duck.
;)

[smax013]

hughes2009 said:

I guess so. Basically what happened was I didn't know that CD and DVD drives had jumper settings. I thought that only hard drives had jumper settings. So I just opened the box and installed it. So it's set to whatever the default settings are and yes the DVD drive is on the slave connector of the IDE cable.

Most IDE devices (whether optical drives or hard drives) tend to come set by default to Master.

[hughes2009]

Thanks for the help everyone.

[Rommel]

Good,

I am glad your answer was without cost to you.

Snorg, what do you figure made the IDE cable prefer CS over M/S?

Just curious.

Rommel

[smax013]

Rommel said:

Snorg, what do you figure made the IDE cable prefer CS over M/S?

Not sure it "preferred" one or the other. It is not clear which solution the original poster used...the fact that Snorg's post was selected as the "correct" answer suggests they went with CS, but the original poster never said one way or the other.

In theory, M/S or CS should work as long as the cable and motherboard support CS...and the jumpers are set to the appropriate settings.

[Rommel]

Good point smax,

I was thinking M/S failed and that CS worked. Hopefully the originator of this thread will clarify.

Rommel

[snorg]

Rommel said:

Snorg, what do you figure made the IDE cable prefer CS over M/S?

The IDE cable cant prefer nothing its just a chunk of wire, the point is CS is idiot proof.
It sounds like hughes had both drives set to master, thus M/S could do nothing but fail.

[Rommel]

OK,

thank you,

Rommel

[smax013]

snorg said:

The IDE cable cant prefer nothing its just a chunk of wire, the point is CS is idiot proof.

CS is only idiot proof if you have an IDE cable that can handle it...otherwise, it "working" proof (i.e. it will not work).

I suspect most newer systems with IDE will tend to have the appropriate cable, but older systems likely will not.

[hughes2009]

Just as Snorg said, I had both drives set to Master and then change ONLY the DVD Drive to Cable Select. Then turned on the computer and both drives were detected.

[smax013]

hughes2009 said:

Just as Snorg said, I had both drives set to Master and then change ONLY the DVD Drive to Cable Select. Then turned on the computer and both drives were detected.

Strictly speaking, you should also change the other drive to Cable Select if it is not already set to Cable Select. It might be OK as it is potentially in the "Master" spot on the cable (with Cable Select and an appropriate IDE cable, it is the position on the cable that determines whether the system sees the device as Master or Slave...you set both to CS with the jumper and then which is Master and Slave is determined by which connector on the cable you use to connect the device to).