CD-ROM drive - Jumper settings

[Tricky Lady]

Hello everyone,

I have a quick question on the jumper settings of a CD-write/DVD-read combo drive.

Situation.
My PC is a Dell Dimension 4400, purchased in 2002.
Standard configuration was a simple CD-ROM (read) drive.
Two years ago I added a Plextor CD-write/DVD-read combo in the second "slot", and everything ran well until tonight.

My standard CD-ROM drive doesn't work anymore so I have already removed it so I can have it repaired.

I moved the DVD/CD drive to the first slot (where the standard drive used to be), but I don't really understand what I should do with the jumpers at the back of the DVD/CD drive.
I tried to put the jumper that was initially on the CD-ROM drive (a "closed" jumper), but that does not seem to work. I put it at the second position and at the first position (of the four options). In neither position my Windows XP recognizes the drive.
I tried to launch Windows without having any jumper connected to the drive but that's not a solution either (DVD/CD drive not recognized).

Should I put the "open" jumper that was already at the back of the DVD/CD drive when it was in the "slave" position?
I want to make this drive the "master" drive (logically as I only have one left now).

Can you guys help me out? I really don't know where I should put the jumpers .

Any help is appreciated!

Cheers,
TL

[Red Harvest]

Use the model number of your current drive to search the manufacturers site for proper jumper configuration for slave/master/cable select.

Dell (or was it Compaq/HP?) in the past has used a cable select system if memory serves (at least on some models.) So the position on the IDE ribbon would determine if it was master or slave, rather than the jumper. Obviously, that can cause substantial confusion for those trying to set this by jumper position alone.

[Tricky Lady]

Is the IDE ribbon that "grey flat" connection cable inside the computer?

If so, then I connected the same slot to the new "master" as the one that connected the old CD-ROM drive.... and yet it still does not work properly.

Anyway...it's now half past midnight here, so tomorrow I'll have a look at Dell's and Plextor's websites for more information.... Perhaps I can find some usefull info in the manufacturer's manuals too...

tnx

[Shambles]

Personaly i set my disks up like so,

Hard disk 1 (Ide 1) "Primary master" jumper setting Set to Master

Cd rom/ Dvd (ide 1)" Primary slave" Jumper settings set to Slave


Hard disk 2 (ide 2) "Secondary master" Jumper setting Set To Master

Hard disk 3 Or cd rom exetera (ide 2) "Secondary Slave" Jumper set to save

How ever You can set them all to Cable select if you wish,
But id set all the jumpers individualy,

P.s
f any jumpers are set to cable select All of them must be,
and you can only have 1 slave and 1 master on any given IDE cable.

Hope this helps

ShambleS

[Red Harvest]

I don't know about nowadays, but not all that long ago (3 years or so) it was considered a bad idea to put your CD drives on the same IDE bus with your hard drives...if memory serves. Some of that might have to do with the slowest transfer rate on an IDE device limiting the transfer speed of all devices on that channel or something like that. I think there was also some problem of loading up the primary IDE bus with two devices working simultaneously on the same IDE. It was an issue with burners, and I was not running an IDE burner back then (was using a serial port burner) so I might not be remembering right. But those discussions led me to configure my systems with CD's/Burners on a separate IDE from my hard drives.

Tricky Lady, Yes, the wide fat gray cable should be the IDE cable/ribbon.

[baz]

The plextor website should give you the required instructions to put the pin in the right position for master/slave. Just make sure that the setting you use is in line with the plug on your ide ribbon that you are using.

If all else fails cant you just keep your drive as a slave temporarily, on the setting you had originally?

Instead of repairing why not buy a new one, they are extremely cheap these days, maybe even treat yourself to a dvd burner!

[Mouzafphaerre]

-
I also have a Plex 40x12x40A. (Are we brethren in CD/RW? ) My mainboard has two ide ports (aside from two Ultra ATA ones for the HDDs). The Plex has been the primary master ever since it arrived. (My retired Asus CD-ROM was primary slave.) When I bought my Sony DVD/RW a few months ago, I figured it would be smart to have it as master too, and connected it as the secondary master on the second IDE port, using a second IDE ribbon.



While checking the manuals/websites just in case is always recommended, let me list the "default" jumper positions that I have observed work identically on all IDE/ATA devices: (From memory! Will check when I have the chance)

• Position 1 (leftmost): Master
• Position 2 (Ultra ATA only): Cable select (only 80 conductor Ultra ATA cables can select.)
• Position 3 (Ultra ATA only): Limits the capacity of the Ultra ATA disk to a bare ancient IDE one. (For historical mainboards.)
• Position 4: Never seen it used/mentioned.
• No jumper: Slave

I recommend connecting both recording devices as masters if you have enugh IDE ports on your mobo. And yes, althugh no more risky as in data loss/short circuit, never connect a CD/DVD drive and an HDD on the same port/cable.

Hth!
-

[Tricky Lady]

Okay I followed your good advice and searched (and found) for my Plextor manual.
I think I know how to put the jumpers now... See if it works.

[Zathernon]

Did it work ?

I have a split ribbon. the first split (the one in the middle of the ribbon) is the Master for the DVD player.The jumper is set Master.

The second split, ( the one on the end of the ribbon) is the Slave for the Combo-Drive. The jumper is set Slave.

I could have also set both jumpers on CS ( Cable-Select ) and let the PC decide.
As was said earlier.

On the back of your CD\DVD drive should be the initials M, S, and CS next to each other, the little plastic boot should be on the M or the CS.
Oh, and don't forget to put the power cable back in. It happens.
Oh, and that little wire for the ear-phones is not needed for your CDwrite\DVD read to work.

[Kraellin]

drives have gotten a bit more complex lately. and yes, it used to be that some drives didnt like either the slave position or the master position. any more, they seem to have gotten better on this. it was also true a few years ago, that cable select (c sel) was not that reliable. however, today, i put all my drives on cable select. but, you do need a proper cable for this.

when using cable select, you want to make sure you have the right type of flat ribbon (actually, you can get the space saver cables now that are round). actually, i guess the cables are special for ultra ata (as opposed to just ata), but at any rate, i started using cable select when they went to ultra ata, so i've just associated the one with the other. ultra ata cables are color coded differently from the standard ata's. with standard ata's all three plastic connectors will be the same color, usually black or maybe the middle one will be gray and the other two black. with ultra ata cables, however, one connector on one end (never the middle one) will be blue. the blue one always gets connected to the ide or ultra ata port on the motherboard (do check your manual to be sure on this, however, as my memory isnt what it used to be :). some motherboards now come with 2 standard ide ports and 2 ultra ata ports. those ultra ata ports will also normally be color coded blue.

drives normally come with 4 possible settings for jumpers; master, slave, cable select, and one other i forget, maybe a null. different manufacturers may set which is which differently. normally, any more, the drives will have a plate or label on them which will show which is which, or, they've have this info stamped near the jumper pins themselves, often just above them. some other drives will have a pair of jumpers to set. newer ones seem to have only one jumper, or maybe one jumper and a half jumper for some odd reason (maybe to keep you from putting anything there?).

at any rate, cable select is the easiest way to set up, but you have to follow the rules for it. the jumper must be set on c sel. the end connector, regardless of color is going to automatically be selected as the master drive. the middle connector is always going to be the slave (unless you only have one drive on the ribbon, then some machines will recognize the middle as the master, until you put another drive on the ribbon). yeah, it's bit willy nilly, but it is the easiest and does work well. this will work no matter how many ide or ultra ata ports you have and how many drives you have hooked up to them. i'd still follow the older pattern, though. always put the cd/dvd drives on as a slave, or, if you already have 2 harddrives on ide port 1, then put the first cd/dvd drive on as a master on port 2. you can blame all this on ibm, but mostly microsoft. all of this is a throwback to the old limited system of drives and ports.

the reason for using the ultra ata ribbons is that you get more communication between the ports of the motehrboard and the drives. it wont speed up a normal ata drive, but it shld make the cable select and drive configuration more reliable.

also, if you do set up the master/slave configuration, make sure the master drive is hooked up to the end connector, even if you're not using cable select, and that the slave is hooked up to the middle connector.

if for any reason your drives still wont work, and you're just absolutely sure you've followed everything correctly, swap the drives around. put one harddrive on as a master and put a cd/dvd drive on the same ribbon as a slave. if that doesnt work, put 2 harddrives on the same ribbon as master and slave and put the cd/dvd's on a different ribbon as master and slave. this stuff can still be fussy, especially in older bios's and older motherboards. if it still doesnt work, go into bios and see if the drives are registered there. if they are, and you can boot up to windows, go into device manager and check the listings there. make sure all register as 'working'. also, your cd/dvd's may need drivers installed. normally, windows will handle the harddrives, but some cd/dvd's may need you to install drivers, especially if you're not running windows xp, or if the drives require burning software.

if your drives dont show up in bios, shut down and check ALL your connections and jumpers again. make sure connections are fully seated, that you have power connectors plugged into them, and that you have at least one audio cable, digital or analog connected to at least one of the cd/dvd drives. if bios still doesnt show the device there, try forcing it in bios, or going to a manual recognition. with harddrives this may involve knowing the specs of your device. with cd/dvd's i'm not quite sure. never had to force one before, but it might be possible on some bios's. not sure.

all in all, bios's and systems are easier on this stuff any more, and much more reliable. so, normally, when something doesnt install right on these, something is either broken, or i've done something wrong somewhere.

K.

[Tricky Lady]

Well thanks, because now everything's running fine.

I must admit I don't recall exactly what I changed, but well.... WinXP recognizes the CD drive, and I can write CD's again!

I already bookmarked this thread in case something goes wrong again

[Zathernon]

Glad to hear it !

Kraellin is right. Welcome Kraellin.

I had my information backward. sorry

[Kraellin]

good deal, TL :)

no problemo, zath :)

K.

[Tricky Lady]

Hello folks,
I thought I'd revive "my" old thread on the jumper settings as I have yet another CD drive related problem (hmm, perhaps I should stay further away from PC's?).

I recently bought a DVD writer to replace my old CD writer. Actually I was planning to install both the old CD writer (Plextor Combo I-don't-know-which-serial-number) and the new Plextor PX-716SA (or AL or whatever ). Anyway the problem is that I don't have enough nuts (or bolts?) to add the two in my PC, so I chose for the new one, as I desperately need to back-up some old stuff before my old PC starts crashing and deleting stuff again

But there's the problem. As I have replaced the old CD writer with a DVD writer, my CD writing software (a legal copy of Nero Burning ROM 5.5 that came with the CD writer) does no longer recognise my new DVD writer as a device that can burn CDs or DVDs. Pretty annoying if you're planning to write back-up DVDs.

I checked the driver's tab of the DVD drive, and all Windows XP tells me is that my drivers are up-to-date. When I click the "search for newer drivers", it doesn't find anything.

I already went to the manufacturer's website and downloaded and installed the latest firmware (1.8, where my drive was installed with 1.7). No avail, as Nero still refuses to recognise the DVD writer.
Removing and re-installing Nero didn't help either...

Is this again something that can only be solved by changing jumper settings?
Or do I have to look for a software-wise solution (drivers, firmware, other)?


Any help would be very much appreciated!!

Tnx in advance.
Tricky Lady

[Kraellin]

hmm, if windows sees it just fine, then nero shld see it. as i recall, you may have to go into one of the options of nero and find a pull down box with your new dvd burner as an option and pick it. this really doesnt sound like a hardware or driver issue, but rather one with nero.

does device manager list the drive as a dvd r-rw type drive?

have you checked nero's website, tech support?

K.

[Tricky Lady]

Seems to be a Nero problem indeed. I knew where to find the pop-up with the drop-down menu, but that's where Nero didn't display my new dvd-writer.
But then I downloaded the newest demo from their website, installed it, and wrote a couple of dvd's without any problem.

Guess I should update my software then.

[Shambles]

What are you people talking about?

never conect a cd and a hdd on same cable?

get your selfs a program called fresh diagnose.
Run bench marks on your HDD When they are on the same IDE as a Cd rom. Exetera.
Then Run a bench mark when There Not on the same IDE as a cd rom.

I have Multiple times,
And My HDD actualy Preforms BETTER when connected to the IDE with a cd rom Attached.

So go test these things out people,
Dont just Guess And give People Dumb And Irrelivant info