Cutting ATA133 cable short?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Noozer
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Noozer

I only need a six inch IDE cable. If I cut the blue connector off of the
cable (just leaving the two black connectors) will the 80 wire cable still
be good for ATA133, or do the extra 40 ground wires only get connected to
ground at the blue end of the cable?

I already know that plugging the black end into the mainboard and the next
black connector into the drive works fine.

Thx!
 
Noozer said:
I only need a six inch IDE cable. If I cut the blue connector off of the
cable (just leaving the two black connectors) will the 80 wire cable still
be good for ATA133, or do the extra 40 ground wires only get connected to
ground at the blue end of the cable?

I already know that plugging the black end into the mainboard and the next
black connector into the drive works fine.

Thx!
Click to expand...

In theory, you could cut the cable...but chances are you'd end up with
a few of the wires shorted...I'd just leave it alone or bundle up the
unneded section neatly.
 
If you try it you will probably need a knife and very small diagonal cutters to separate and trim the wire strands after you cut them.
 
Noozer said:
I only need a six inch IDE cable. If I cut the blue connector off of the
cable (just leaving the two black connectors) will the 80 wire cable still
be good for ATA133, or do the extra 40 ground wires only get connected to
ground at the blue end of the cable?

I already know that plugging the black end into the mainboard and the next
black connector into the drive works fine.
Click to expand...

Just to let y'all know... I tried this and it seems to work fine. I'm going
to keep my eye on the PC and see if there are any issues.

I cut the cable using a sharp exacto knife right along the edge of the
middle connector.
 
Noozer said:
Just to let y'all know... I tried this and it seems to work fine. I'm
going to keep my eye on the PC and see if there are any issues.

I cut the cable using a sharp exacto knife right along the edge of the
middle connector.
Click to expand...

What speed does your drive report in 'control panel' 'hardware' 'IDE
devices' right click and properties? (If using XP).

I've been told that the blue (in this case) end of the cable should go to
the mobo as it carries a signal wire that the other connectors don't that
tells the IDE controller that it is an 80 wire cable. Without that connector
being used the controller defaults to ATA33. I'd be interested to know if
this is in fact the case.

I've previously cut 40-wire cables as you describe and had no trouble with
them.
 
Noozer said:
I only need a six inch IDE cable. If I cut the blue connector off of the
cable (just leaving the two black connectors) will the 80 wire cable still
be good for ATA133, or do the extra 40 ground wires only get connected to
ground at the blue end of the cable?

I already know that plugging the black end into the mainboard and the next
black connector into the drive works fine.
Click to expand...


Are you sure it works "fine", i.e. have you run benchmarks before and after?
You should plug the blue into the mobo and the drive into the next for it
to work in ATA133 mode.
 
stacey said:
Are you sure it works "fine", i.e. have you run benchmarks before and after?
You should plug the blue into the mobo and the drive into the next for it
to work in ATA133 mode.
Click to expand...

This is what I thought as well, but I cut the blue end off and Windows is
still running in Multi-Word DMA5 mode on the drive. Wife says it's running
fine (it's her PC). It does make for a cleaner installation!

This cable was blue at one end, grey in the middle and black on the last
connector. Any chance the extra wires are connected to ground in the middle
connector instead of the blue end???

I'll try some benchmarks once I figure out what I'm doing. I tried some RAID
against IDE benchmarks tonight with Sandra (another post) and the numbers
are confusing!
 
Noozer said:
This is what I thought as well, but I cut the blue end off and Windows is
still running in Multi-Word DMA5 mode on the drive. Wife says it's running
fine (it's her PC). It does make for a cleaner installation!

This cable was blue at one end, grey in the middle and black on the last
connector. Any chance the extra wires are connected to ground in the middle
connector instead of the blue end???
Click to expand...

As long as you don't try to use cable select, it should be OK. Pin 28 (CSEL),
is grounded from the blue connector to the master (black) connector to tell
that drive it's master. It's open at the slave (grey) connector. Pin 34 is
used to tell the controller that an ATA66/100/133 drive is being used, but
that wire is present in both the grey and black connectors so should be OK.
I'll try some benchmarks once I figure out what I'm doing. I tried some RAID
against IDE benchmarks tonight with Sandra (another post) and the numbers
are confusing!
Click to expand...

Sandra can often be wrong.

Virg Wall
 
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