New computer

mdogg

Hi. I need some help with a new computer I'm building. Here are the specs:

Intel Desktop Board DG965SS
Intel Core 2 Duo
1GB RAM (2 512mb sticks)
Western Digital 40gb hard drive
BenQ DoubleLayer + DVD burner.

I'm having trouble connecting the CD drive. Whenever I connect the power to it, it seems to work. Then I connect the data cable and the whole computer freezes and I'm left with a non-blinking cursor at the top-left corner of the screen. I have no OS installed on it currently and I've tried a bunch of different CD drives as well. Anybody know why it doesn't work?

Lupinthe3rd

Not knowing the drive, is it possible that your connecting the ribbon cable upside down? Or is there a little stub on the end of the cable which fits in with the DVD writer?

Bash

Try another ribbon cable, and check the jumpers on the back of your drives.

Constitutional Defender

Check the bios settings. Sometimes (although rarely) the settings are wrong.

mdogg

Well when the ribbon is one way, it doesn't freeze and doesn't recognize the drive. When the ribbon is the other way, it freezes and I'm not sure if it recognized the drive or not. Also the BIOS settings are very limited and the cable is so old that it doesn't have a peg. I've set the hard drive as the master and the DVD drive as the slave and master and I've also tried setting both drives to cable select. No different result.

adragons

Uh, the ribbon should only fit in one direction. Check to see that you didn't accidentally bend/break any pins on the drive. The red line on the ribbon goes on the right side.

Q

1st thing (Sounds stupid I know): You aren't connecting this when the system's running?

2nd: If the CD is set to master it should be on the end of the cable with the DVD in the middle.

Check for a "Pin 1" label one the drive referring to the IDE connector; that connector should get the red striped side of the cable.

-Q

mdogg

No I'm not connecting any drives while the system is running (because that's just plain stupid) and the hard drive is set to master and the rest are set to cable select. There's also no markings on the drive at the end with the plugs so I can't see which way the red strip should go because it fits both ways. No peg and all the holes are in place. There should be one or two holes that should be filled shouldn't there?

mdogg

I checked the hard drive in the computer I'm posting on and it didn't like it either. It couldn't see the drive leaving the two primary slots empty. I think something has fried inside it or something.

mdogg

I finally got a new hard drive. Sorry for the delay. I've been busy with a friend's computer. I've also taken everything out of the case (motherboard, floppy disks, etc) onto a box and now it's running out of the box. It all seems to be working fine except for the CD-ROM drive. Nothing except the BIOS seems to be reading it. My Windows 98 startup disk when installing the CD driver says that no drives were found, aborting installation. I tried running Ubuntu Live CD, but the computer freezes up at Probing PCI devices (bus 00). I've also tried the MandrakeMove live CD and it said "No CD drives found" and gave me a list of drivers to access SCSI but the drive isn't SCSI. The hard drive and floppy drive work though and it's not freezing anymore so I must be doing something right.

Q

What's the info on the CD? I'm assuming it's IDE if not SCSI.

-Q

mdogg

Yes. It's IDE and definitely not SATA.

adragons

the hard drive is set to master and the rest are set to cable select.

try putting the drive to master as well. You can have a master hdd AND a master disk drive.

Q

Assuming they're on different "controllers" (IE. Cables)?

-Q

mdogg

No they're on the same cable. My motherboard only has one IDE port.

UglynGrey

It's possible it's just plain old fashioned dead. Does it work on another computer? And if so does a different optical drive work on your IDE controller?

Why not put the drive on a separate IDE channel in any case? EDIT saw your last post, forget it...

If coexisting most drives have a jumper not only for master but "Master-slave present" and then you set the other device to slave.

mdogg

It's not dead because the BIOS can read it. I had it on a different computer before I had it on this one. I've tried connecting an LG CD reader (plain I know but it only costed AU$16) and I got the same result. Also I can't use Ubuntu on the LG because Ubuntu is on DVD not CD. My hard drive is on cable select and the DVD burner is on slave (I only have one drive connected). Do you think there is something wrong with my jumper arrangement then?

UglynGrey

Just because the BIOS read the presence of the device doesn't mean it can subsequently control the device unless it knows which device on the IDE chain is the real "Master"

The BIOS detecting it and subsequntly failing to "control" it leads me to believe it's a jumper issue.

I Suggest trying the Optical drive as master without an HD present and seeing if it boots from a live CD. That way you know for sure if it's going to work.

From there you can attach your HD and set it to slave for all it matters, this has no impact on the HD's performance. It's just saying which device is passing on signals to the other device.

Of course sharing a channel impacts performance when moving data from one device to other but you have one channel so you have to live with it.

BlueSun

I thought I would also mention a little rule of thumb when connecting IDE devices.

Usually, the red stripe on the cable is closest to the power connector.

so if your drive were like

IDE____________MSCS* Power
[::::::::::::::::::::] [:::] [OOOO]

The red stripe would be on the right

*Master, Slave, CableSelect

as far as jumper settings go, put the hard drive on Master and the optical drive on slave, not cable select. The hard drive might also have a jumper for "Master-Slave Present" and if it does, set the jumper to that.

Q

BlueSun wrote:

The hard drive might also have a jumper for "Master-Slave Present" and if it does, set the jumper to that.

More then likely not that option would be just called "Master" and the other would be something like "Single".

-Q

BlueSun

I've seen both.

Some drives have a master-slave present, some have a single, some just master...

There is a lot of crazy names for basically the same thing

mdogg

UglynGrey wrote:

it leads me to believe it's a jumper issue.

A jumper issue eh? I should try more changing the jumpers around and see what works best. By the way, I'm thinking of installing Windows 2000 on it from torrent. (http://forum.winworldpc.com:81/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=4454)

anantha92

make sure it isnt a floppy cable lol, jk. Sorry i ahve no idea whats wrong here. Try the drive on another computer and see what happens. Or get an IDE to usb converter and use the drive that way, thats what i did for a mobo that didnt support IDE drives.

mdogg

I'm going to go ahead and install Windows 2000 on my computer and see what happens. Linux and DOS can't read my CD drive, but Windows might be able to use it. I'll just look for my CD burning software.

mdogg

So as I said I would, I installed Windows 2000 and it completed successfully. I've even got a picture to prove it. And it detected my CD drive as well. Maybe I should try getting a BenQ CD driver for DOS and see if that works. That might be the problem.

PS. Picture:

Q

What's that thing between QuickTime and IME?

-Q

anantha92

i really dont think you can use cd rom drivers for dvd drives in dos. the first verion of windows that supported dvd drives was 98. If you ahd a regular cd (cd writer if you can get away with it) drive then you DOS should ahve no problem with it. Taht was your problem.

mdogg

Q wrote:

What's that thing between QuickTime and IME?

Do you mean on the system tray?

BTW: If you're talking about Input Method Editor, then I don't have it on my system.

Q

Whatever that "EN" thing there is. On my old Compaq, IME would put that there.

-Q

Happy_Dude

Q wrote:

Whatever that "EN" thing there is.

Thats a language thingo. "EN" is... English.

Q

You know what I mean (I hope).

-Q