Problem with new DVD drive

[BrianS]

Just fitted a new Liteon drive but although it sees the discs it isn't reading them.

I have put it in my tower case beneath an old CD drive. I have changed the CD drive jumper to slave and the new drive to master as recommended in the installation instructions and the old CD drive still works fine.

BUT I have left the IDE ribbon cable in its old position i.e. the end connector into the CD drive and the middle one into the DVD master drive.

Just a thought - are the connections on the ribbon cable different - do I need to put the DVD on the "end" connection perhaps?

Cheers

Brian

 

[Fanum]

It's more likely to be a software issue I'd suspect, as you're putting a new DVD into an old PC.

Make sure you have all the service packs for your OS and check the manufacturer's site for any drivers that you may be missing.

 

[cookie]

Just a thought - are the connections on the ribbon cable different - do I need to put the DVD on the "end" connection perhaps?

Cheers

Brian

only if you use "cable select" jumper option.

my first thought is that the drive is damaged. if it sees the discs, then i would have thought windows end was ok. of course an old pc may not know what a dvd is

edit: optical drives don't ever need 80 way ribbons do they?

 

[BrianS]

Thanks for the quick replies guys!

Its a fairly recent build PC and the DVD replaces an older one that was getting a bit "iffy" on the recording front.

 

[Womble]

Just a thought - could you try disconnecting the old CD-ROM, just in case that's interfering. It shouldn't make a difference, but at least it's removing a potential problem from the list.

 

[BrianS]

In retrospect I made the fatal mistake of making two changes to my PC in quick succession - I blame eBuyer for encouraging me to buy more gizmos than I need just to qualify for free delivery!!!

I firstly added a memory module which the PC recognised - no problems. All seemed well so, after half an hour or so, I powered down and fitted the new DVD drive and I have had a nightmare since then. The PC has rebooted at will - blamed anti-virus software? Messed up Outlook etc etc. After a crash in the middle of repairing my Outlook .pst file I decided enough was enough and disconnected the new DVD drive and took out the new memory module.

After some tidying up, everything seems to be stable at the moment - fingers crossed. If it stays that way for a while then I will try fitting the new memory or DVD again but not both at once this time!!!!

 

[BrianS]

Sorted!

I reconnected the DVD unit and started getting "ATAPI incompatible" errors in the BIOS startup. After a bit of messing about the PC only seemed happy to accept the old CD unit as the "Master" at the end of the ribbon cable (old fashioned heavy one) and the new DVD unit as "Slave" but they both work fine now in that configuration and no further crashes!

Thanks again for help.

Part of the fallout from all the BLODs was that various programmes were corrupted including the Outlook pst file and so lots of reloading and repairing yesterday. I have a few more queries arising but will start them on a separate thread.