Two Optical Drives On The Same IDE Channel

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bob
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B

Bob

I put my NEC 3540 as Secondary Master and an older LG CD-RW as
Secondary Slave. They were jumpered as M and S - no CS.

The BIOS had no problems identifying them during POST, but Win2K/SP4
hung at the part where it is doing PnP - just before it flashes the KB
lights.

Win2K can handle either unit alone with no problems. It's when they
are both present that Win2K can't deal with it.

What is going on?


--

Greatest Movie Line Ever
http://home.houston.rr.com/rkba/MovieLine.wmv

"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within
limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add
'within the limits of the law,' because law is often but the tyrant's
will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual."
-- Thomas Jefferson
 
Win2K can handle either unit alone with no problems. It's when they
are both present that Win2K can't deal with it.
Click to expand...


Try jumpering both in the CS position. You could also try going into device
manager and 'uninstalling' whatever drive is currently connected, turn the
system off, put both drives in and turn the system back on.
--


"I don't cheat to survive. I cheat to LIVE!!"
- Alceryes
 
Try jumpering both in the CS position.
Click to expand...

What good will that do? Teh BIOS already recognizes them correctly.
Wn2K doesn't know about jumpers.
You could also try going into device
manager and 'uninstalling' whatever drive is currently connected, turn the
system off, put both drives in and turn the system back on.
Click to expand...

I thought of that but hesitated because I can find no good reason why
it should make any difference, unless Win2K can't deal with 2 optical
drives to begin with.


--

Greatest Movie Line Ever
http://home.houston.rr.com/rkba/MovieLine.wmv

"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within
limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add
'within the limits of the law,' because law is often but the tyrant's
will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual."
-- Thomas Jefferson
 
Bob....I have a dual boot machine, WinXP and Win 2000. My set up is two
hd's on the same cable (0) and 1 cd and 1 dvd on the other cable (1). both
work in either OS without any problems. In both cases, I use master and
slave jumpers. MIke.
 
You have to try what works for your setup. I've had some DVD's that insist
on being the master on a cable & also had it where I've had to put one HD &
one CD/DVD on each cable.
You just need to try every alternative that works for you. It is more
dependent on the make of drive than XP or bios.
 
You have to try what works for your setup. I've had some DVD's that insist
on being the master on a cable & also had it where I've had to put one HD &
one CD/DVD on each cable.
You just need to try every alternative that works for you. It is more
dependent on the make of drive than XP or bios.
Click to expand...
I decided to leave the CD-RW in the bay, since I have no need for the
bay anyway but leave it unconnected until I need it. I can then
unconnect the DVD-RW. The only time I ran into a problem was when I
did an In-Place Upgrade, which is so infrequent that fooling with 2
optical drives is not worth it.

You are right about optical drives liking to be master. I had problems
with my NEC 3540 when it was slave and now that it's master, I have no
more problems.


--

Greatest Movie Line Ever
http://home.houston.rr.com/rkba/MovieLine.wmv

"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within
limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add
'within the limits of the law,' because law is often but the tyrant's
will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual."
-- Thomas Jefferson
 
What good will that do? Teh BIOS already recognizes them correctly.
Wn2K doesn't know about jumpers.
Click to expand...

We don't have to know why nor expect it to work, sometimes
bugs are pleasantly resolved because the buggy state was one
that "should've" worked, but changing to yet another state
that "should" work, may still work.

You might check on a motherboard bios update, and if you
don't have the master drive on the end of the cable, try
that too. I like cable select though, always use it unless
it doesn't work right (which is becoming rarer and rarer
with modern system drives).
 
We don't have to know why nor expect it to work,
Click to expand...

As a scientist, I have to know. That is my profession - to know why
things work the way they do. A computer is a state machine, so there
is always a clearly defined reason for why it behaves in a particular
way.

sometimes
bugs are pleasantly resolved because the buggy state was one
that "should've" worked, but changing to yet another state
Click to expand...
You might check on a motherboard bios update,
Click to expand...

Why? The BIOS recognizes the two drives. It's Win2K that has the
problem.
and if you don't have the master drive on the end of the cable, try
that too.
Click to expand...

I moved it there recently when it acted flaky in the other position.
I like cable select though, always use it unless
it doesn't work right (which is becoming rarer and rarer
with modern system drives).
Click to expand...

I have the drives jumpered for master and slave. The BIOS recognizes
them in their proper position so that is no an issue.

The issue is a driver conflict in Windows. The suggestion to remove
all optical drivers and start fresh is a good possibility, although I
am not going to pursue this matter any further because it's not worth
it. On the rare occasion I must implement the CD-RW, I will connect
it. It's still in the case so all I have to do is sway a couple
cables.

For a mature product, Win2K/SP4 sure has a lot of bugs remaining.
Maybe it's the NEC 3540 and SP4 has not caught up with it.


--

Greatest Movie Line Ever
http://home.houston.rr.com/rkba/MovieLine.wmv

"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within
limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add
'within the limits of the law,' because law is often but the tyrant's
will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual."
-- Thomas Jefferson
 
Bob said:
As a scientist, I have to know. That is my profession - to know why
things work the way they do. A computer is a state machine, so there
is always a clearly defined reason for why it behaves in a particular
way.
Click to expand...

I agree! With Windows, I often find that I know much more than I
understand! One advantage of open source systems like Linux: One can
examine the "innards" and have a chance of figuring out what's going on.

Route to understanding:

Knowledge--easy to find, especially with the Internet data-base.
Learning--need to know basic rules of science and how to use them.
Experience--let's hope we live long enough to get this.
 
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