I don’t know what I’m doing wrong here. Maybe someone can help out? Here’s where I’m at.
Last year I bought this computer and immediately unplugged the CD burner (same brand, it’s an out of the box Presario) and installed my Memorex DVD burner with the “slave-pin” connector. The jumpers are set for slave. All was working well, until I noticed it doesn’t like non-Memorex discs. (CD nor DVD, is this common?)
Anyway, I have a quite a few audio files (gotten legally) that I want to burn, but I only have Imation (about 100) discs. The DVD burner throws a fit when I try to use these. (As well as TDK DVD discs, so it must be brand incompatibility). So I thought I’d just plug the CD burner back in under the “master-pin” connector with the jumper set on that to master.
Problem: No power to the CD-R drive and when I go into the search for new hardware wizard, it doesn’t find anything. I’m running XP Home if that helps at all.
Can anyone think of another XP utility to try? Or, even better, what should I look for physically inside the case for connections? It’s out of warranty so tech support is out and I can’t afford to have it serviced right now.
It’s not uncommon for burners to start “disliking” a certain brand of media. The first burner I ever owned - a 4x HP CD burner - started off burning all brands of media, then after a while started choking on Verbatim, then Memorex, then Maxell, then Fuji, etc. etc. So your initial problem is not unheard of, but it’s not as common as it once was.
Why did you change the pins on the “new” burner from slave to master? Each IDE channel (primary or secondary) can support 2 devices (master or slave) for a total of 4 devices. If your old drive was working (as in, could read discs and showed up in Windows as a drive) using a slave configuration, why would you change the “new” drive to a “master”? It sounds like you have some device on the channel as a master already, and when you hook up the “new” CD burner as a master, it’s already “busy” with the other device, so to speak. Try the “new” burner as a slave and see if it appears in Device Mangler.
I know this sounds stupid, but if the drive is getting no power, are you sure that a power cable is attached to the device? Also, every device that uses one of the “big” Molex (power) connectors - as opposed to the “small” connectors used with floppy drives - should be “keyed” so that the power plug can be inserted only one way. Are you sure that you have the plug inserted correctly? In other words, one side of the power plug is “flat” while the opposite side is “rounded” - are you sure this is plugged in correctly?
Windows XP has built-in drivers for CD and DVD-ROM drives (except USB and Firewire drives, which this is not). If the drive shows up in your BIOS, it should show up in XP as at least a CD-ROM drive. In my experience, a fresh install of XP (or a new CD or DVD burner) will appear as a generic “reader” drive until you put a blank disc in it for the first time, after which “My Computer” will report the drive as a “CD-RW Drive” or a “DVD-RW Drive”.
99 times out of 100, if a CD or DVD drive of any kind (burner or not) does not appear in your “My Computer” or Device Mangler after installation then one of the following things is the culprit:
The drive is jumpered incorrectly. See my first post about changing your “new” drive to slave to see if this works. Note that usually if you already have a device on the channel as a master then add another device as a master BOTH devices should stop working in Windows until you get them jumpered correctly.
A power cable is loose, flat-out not plugged in, or has simply burnt out. Yet another 99 times of of 100, it’s the first two that are the problem. The last possibility (that the power connector is burnt out, or has come undone inside the connector) is pretty damn rare, but it happens. Use another power plug, if you have one available.
The IDE cable (the “ribbon” cable) is not plugged into the drive firmly enough. This usually prevents the drive from showing up in Windows, but if the power cable is attached properly, you should at least be able to get the tray to open by pressing the eject button on the drive. If you’re not getting this, look in to suggestion #2.
CD and DVD drives (or any kind, burners included) do not need any special drivers in Windows 98 or higher (except for the aforementioned USB and Firewire drives). If they’re plugged in and jumpered correctly, they just work*. If you’re not getting the drive in XP - especially if the drive won’t open the tray if you press the eject button - there’s no XP utility than can help. In other words you’re having a problem that’s not XP-specific or even Windows-specific.
= Even failing burners often appear as standard “non-burner” drives in XP, 2000 and (to a lesser extent) 98 and will read discs, if not burn them. Let me stress that these are failing drives too.
This may prove to be embarrassing, but let me clear up some stuff before going back in. The CD-burner was hooked to the Master, I unplugged that and hooked the Slave pins to the DVD (it’s one of those set-ups where you have master on top and slave below, being all in one ribbon) I plugged the power plug into the Master, but you all had to ruin my fun by reminding me that the tray should open anyway. sigh Shutting down to try it again. In 10 years I’ve never missed a power hook-up.
If that’s what it is, can I solicit everyone to petition for closure of this thread? It may be more embarrassing than anything I ever post to the Pit.
Nope, got power to the Cd-R drive, but still not recognized. I’ll give it till tomorrow night then just do another hard install ( I can back up my data). Damn, where is the plug-and-play?!?
I’m not sure if I’m understanding your understanding of “master” and “slave”. It seems that the old drive works (sort of) and it’s a slave. But you put the “new” one in as a “master” and it doesn’t work. Why haven’t you set up the “new” drive as a slave?
FYI, it doesn’t really matter what position the master and slave are in on the cable itself. You can have a master “on top” or “on the bottom”. You can have a master plugged in to the first plug of the IDE cable or the second - it’s doesn’t really matter, as long as one is set to MASTER and the other is set to SLAVE.
UNLESS the cable has one plug which is blue, in which case the blue end goes into the motherboard and the first plug is typically for master and the end plug is typically for slave. I say this somewhat hesitantly, as although this is the preferred way to hook up your drives (performance-wise) it shouldn’t prevent the drive from appearing in Windows.
Also, there is one other possible thing, and that is that another device on your IDE channel is set to cable select (usually noted as CS on the back of drives and\or the jumper configuration panel). In this case, the jumper position is ignored (as long as it’s set for CS) and the position of the drive on the cable (first plug is master, second is slave) determines the master\slave designation.
There’s no need to reformat your system over this. Take a deep breath, leave it alone for a few hours and try again.
Well, before you start re-installing windows, make sure the drives are showing up in the BIOS or you will be wasting your time. Also make sure the IDE ports you are using are not disabled and set to “Auto-Detect”.
You can usually see the drive information when you boot, but have to enter the “Setup” portion of the BIOS to change anything.
Look for “Primary Master, Primary Slave, Secondary Master and Secondary Slave”, the make and model of the drives should be listed for each one that the BIOS sees. And if the BIOS won’t see it, Windows won’t either.
OK, I backed away from the computer last night, and am ready to try again tonight. Now I just need some reminding on how to check the BIOS. Do I get to it from the startup window before Windows boots, or can I get to it from within XP itself? I can’t beleive I’m having so much trouble over something I’ve done 3 times before on previous computers!
As MC$E said, you must enter the BIOS before you see the Windows “boot screen”. Typically, most systems quickly show a message that says something like “Press F1 to enter setup” shortly after you press the POWER button, but before anything Windows-specific appears on the screen.
I’d like to also add that some Dell computers require the use of the F10 key to enter the BIOS. Unfortunately, which specific key you must press is a crapshoot, as some systems use DEL, some use F1 or F2 or F10, and I’ve even seen ones that required CTRL+ALT to enter setup. So unless you can provide us with a model number for your system, you’ll have to figure out which key it is on your own.
Lastly, check out MC$E’sexcellent next to last post for what you need to look for once you’re inside the BIOS.
