Help! i want to know if my DVD writer is broken.... pelase..

charlo_blade123

I bought an ASUS internal DVD Writer yesterday.
after installng it in my CPU and run the computer

i saw a message upon boot on the screen i can see

"Secondary IDE channel NO 80 conductor installed"

what does that means? is my DVD writer broken?

but i can enter my windows.. so im wondering what does the message means,,

PRIMARY = HARD DISK
slave = CD-ROM
Secondary = DVD Writer
slave = CD Writer...

also i have noticed that if i forgot to close the DVD Writer and turn off the computer, it does not close automatic before shutting down.- leaving the DVD writer open..
the other two drives close upon shutting down..
so is the DVD writer broken?

i want to know if its broken, so that i could return it to the shop..
but i want to make sure if its really broken.. i dont want to humilate myself on the shop..

thank you.. sorry for bad english..

izcool

I'm guessing that you probably have the IDE cables hooked up the wrong way. You might have swapped one upside-down, or the one end has to be on the motherboard instead of on the drive's rear end. If you didn't change this when you installed your DVD burner, then it's probably correct with the motherboard part.

I suggest you trying Cable Select for your optical drives to see if that will work. I don't suggest using it all the time, but I prefer to use Master/Slave after finding out how to hook them up properly.

Another thing I would try is just the DVD burner itself, without having a CD-RW drive as a slave. If that doesn't work, then more than likely the drive is bad. Go back to the store where you got it from, with all the original packaging (and receipt, if possible) and get a replacement. Just try to remember that you shouldn't have only one drive on a channel with the Pin being set to Slave, as that won't work. Razz

Cable Select and Master should do.

Let me know if any of that helped. Good luck on finding the solution.

- Mike.

KHO

Ok, heres what you did:
There are two big ribbons in your computer, one leads to a HDD and another to a CD-ROM. You hooked it up to the back end of the one going to the HDD, try the other one and call me in the morning. Neutral

charlo_blade123

thanks guys for the help.. but i figured out whats the problem..

the problem is caused because im using IDE 100

and most new model drives required IDE 133..

i bought and installed it using IDE 133 and no errors displayed upon bios startup..

the only problem remaining is that the DVD writer wont close automatically upon restart .. so what i did is called the store and asked about it.. they told me that some Drivers doesnt have auto close... is it really true? or is it really a driver's problem?

thank you guys for the help...

Bones

You guys are WAY off. There is nothing wrong with the dvd writer at all or your installation.

There are basically 2 common types of IDE ribbon cable, 40 and 80 conductor cables. There are only 40 active conductors in both cables, but in the 80's every second channel is grounded allowing you to push data much faster through the cable without getting crosstalk between the channels (data leaking from one conductor to another because of the magnetic fields caused by moving electricity, which in turn will induce electric current in nearby channels and corrupting any data traveling on those channels)

You installed a dvd writer that supports 80 conductor cable, and your computer is just telling you that it didn't detect one. You can use 40 IDE cable with no problems, but you will get faster data transfer with an 80 conductor cable.

So you can leave it as is with no problems, or you can replace the IDE cable with an 80 conductor one and have a lil faster data transfer (you arent likely going to notice much difference)

Also, why 3 optical drives? The DVD drive can do everything and more than the other 2 can.

edit: my DVD writer doesnt close on shutdown either..besides, why would that be important as your drive shouldnt be open when you shut down the pc??

charlo_blade123

Bones

Glad to hear you figured it out..you posted your second response while I was typing mine Smile

I guess I am not concerned about teh auto close thing because I never leave my drives open for any length of time at all. I have seen too many drives get boken this way (almost broke one myself too)

It's so easy to forget or not think about it being open, and then one of the kids runs in the room, you reach for something, or one of a hundred other scenereos and hit the door to the drive. They break pretty easy.

With 3 optical drives in the pc that will put more unnecessary strain on the power supply (mostly at startup) unless you have a fairly beefy one.

charlo_blade123

Thanks for you concern..

i will keep my drives close as what u wish...

and nah.. 3 optical drives didnt change much interms of start-up speed.. it was just like before i had 3..