Topic: installing an NEC DVD drive

[T.J.]

i have been trying to install a DVD-/+R drive in my computer and i can't figure it out. i got the hard part done, which for me was opening the computer and getting the drive in the tower.

a little background info so maybe someone can help:
the drive i am installing: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Submit=Suggested&Description=27-152
CPU: DELL dimension 300
OS: Windows XP

i pluged the NEC drive into the computer assuming XP would automatically recognize the drive.
i didn't so i went to control pannel and tried to install new hardware. this doesn;t seem to work.
i tried rebooting the CPU. when doing this w/ the drive attached the CPU freezes on the startup screen. so i must disconnect  the drive to allow the CPU to reboot.

is it possible the drive is not compatible w/ DELL CPUs? i haven't seen any info supporting this.
i don't have any DVD-/+R software on my computer yet, but i don't see why this would disable me from installing the drive.
i believe my CD-R/RW drive is installed on secondary IDE 0. i think i need to install the DVD-/+R drive on the secondary IDE 1
this seems like a simple process, but i'm stuck.
any suggestions or advice is greatly appreciated.
thanks

[MattD]

First step: reboot and go into your BIOS. Do you see the drive there?

[T.J.]

First step: reboot and go into your BIOS. Do you see the drive there?

how do i get to the BIOS? sorry if this is a dumb question, but i've never done anything like this before. i did do a IDE drive diagnosis and didn't see it there

[MattD]

When you reboot, your startup screen should tell you what key to press. I forget what Dell uses, but it's either F1, F2 or Delete.

[T.J.]

When you reboot, your startup screen should tell you what key to press. I forget what Dell uses, but it's either F1, F2 or Delete.

can you elaborate a bit b/c i won't be able to post while checking. once i find this screen what should i look for? as i stated before, the drive is not connected so i assume it won't be listed anywhere.

[MattD]

oh ... connect it first. You should be able to get into the BIOS regardless of what's connected, though, as you found out, you can't always boot. When you boot, a screen comes up telling you what to press to get into the BIOS ("startup menu" - sometimes called).

In there, look at the devices recognized. Is the drive on there? If not, then something is wrong with the cable/jumper settings. You'll have to shut down and work that out. You can always unplug and reboot to ask another question. If it does recognize the drive in the BIOS, you have a software/driver problem. I think the first case is more likely.

[bconnolly]

While the computer is booting up, but before it gets into windows, hit either F2, F8, or Delete a bunch of times (or just cycle through all three) and it will bring up the BIOS.

In there you can see if the drive is being detected by your PC.

My advice is to check if the DVD is set as a proper slave or master.  If it's the second drive in your IDE chain (for instance, behind another optical drive on the cable) then you need to set it as a slave drive with the plastic jumper pin.  Alternatively, you can just set both of the drives to Cable Select (CS) and the computer will just use each one in the order that they're on the cable.

[T.J.]

While the computer is booting up, but before it gets into windows, hit either F2, F8, or Delete a bunch of times (or just cycle through all three) and it will bring up the BIOS.

In there you can see if the drive is being detected by your PC.

My advice is to check if the DVD is set as a proper slave or master.  If it's the second drive in your IDE chain (for instance, behind another optical drive on the cable) then you need to set it as a slave drive with the plastic jumper pin.  Alternatively, you can just set both of the drives to Cable Select (CS) and the computer will just use each one in the order that they're on the cable.

i think the CS option may be what i'm trying to accomplish. is there somewhere in windows XP to check. by the way guys, thanks again guys for the input and patience.

[bconnolly]

i think the CS option may be what i'm trying to accomplish. is there somewhere in windows XP to check. by the way guys, thanks again guys for the input and patience.

On the actual drive there is a diagram (on the top) that will tell you what setting to use for CS.  I have the same brand of DVD-RW drive so it should be the same.

[T.J.]

i think the CS option may be what i'm trying to accomplish. is there somewhere in windows XP to check. by the way guys, thanks again guys for the input and patience.

On the actual drive there is a diagram (on the top) that will tell you what setting to use for CS.  I have the same brand of DVD-RW drive so it should be the same.

okay i pulled the drive out of the CPU and i see the diagram you are talking about. it doesn't look like i have any connectors available to plug into either CS, slave, or master. it looks like i have 2 power connectors available to me and on I/O BUS connector. there is another connector which doesn't seem like it fits into the DVD-/+R drive. maybe this connector needs to go in the CD-R/RW drive?

[pfife]

look for the jumpers, which are a single wire connected to two peices of plastic that fit around some pins.

[pfife]

btw- I have a NEC drive with a Dell desktop - its fine.  My machine came w/ a cd rom and a cd-r, so I just removed the cd-rom and looked at the jumper config on the one I took out.  Matched that on the DVDburner, and it worked no problem.

[T.J.]

btw- I have a NEC drive with a Dell desktop - its fine.  My machine came w/ a cd rom and a cd-r, so I just removed the cd-rom and looked at the jumper config on the one I took out.  Matched that on the DVDburner, and it worked no problem.

which machine: your computer or the DVD-/+R drive? my Dell only came w/ one cd tray (a cd-r dvd readable drive).

[pfife]

btw- I have a NEC drive with a Dell desktop - its fine.  My machine came w/ a cd rom and a cd-r, so I just removed the cd-rom and looked at the jumper config on the one I took out.  Matched that on the DVDburner, and it worked no problem.

which machine: your computer or the DVD-/+R drive? my Dell only came w/ one cd tray (a cd-r dvd readable drive).

If you are replacing that one, read what the jumper position is on the cd burner, and mimic that on the dvd drive.  That's if you're taking the cd-r drive out.

[T.J.]

btw- I have a NEC drive with a Dell desktop - its fine.  My machine came w/ a cd rom and a cd-r, so I just removed the cd-rom and looked at the jumper config on the one I took out.  Matched that on the DVDburner, and it worked no problem.

which machine: your computer or the DVD-/+R drive? my Dell only came w/ one cd tray (a cd-r dvd readable drive).

If you are replacing that one, read what the jumper position is on the cd burner, and mimic that on the dvd drive.  That's if you're taking the cd-r drive out.

no i am planing leaving the existing one in and adding this drive. so i must need to either A. set this drive up as a slave drive or B. set it up using CS.

[pfife]

btw- I have a NEC drive with a Dell desktop - its fine.  My machine came w/ a cd rom and a cd-r, so I just removed the cd-rom and looked at the jumper config on the one I took out.  Matched that on the DVDburner, and it worked no problem.

which machine: your computer or the DVD-/+R drive? my Dell only came w/ one cd tray (a cd-r dvd readable drive).

If you are replacing that one, read what the jumper position is on the cd burner, and mimic that on the dvd drive.  That's if you're taking the cd-r drive out.

no i am planing leaving the existing one in and adding this drive. so i must need to either A. set this drive up as a slave drive or B. set it up using CS.

right.  Try cable select. 

[Chris K]

when you turn on your computer, does the dvd drve appear to be getting power? does a light go on and or does the tray open/close?

[ScottT]

Did you get this figured out T.J.?

To get into the BIOS on a Dell, you need to hit F2 before the operating system loads.  Basically, just turn the PC on and hit F2 every second until you get into that screen.  From here it will show you what is currently on your IDE channels - usually a hard drive on one and your original CD-ROM on the other.  Since you can connect two devices on each channel, pay attention to what it says for the unused connections.  Sometimes they are set to OFF.  You need to change this to AUTO so it will auto-magically detect your new drive.

On the DVD drive you need to set the jumper to either CS, Master, or Slave.  CS will hopefully work, otherwise you must set it for Master or Slave depending on which connection on the IDE cable you are using.

I was Googling for a picture of the jumpers and stumbled across a very informative and entertaining guide:

"Even a cat would be able to install a DVD+/-RW drive, if we had opposable thumbs"




 

It'll walk you through what you need to know.  Good luck!

[T.J.]

when you turn on your computer, does the dvd drve appear to be getting power? does a light go on and or does the tray open/close?

yeah everything seems to be working

Did you get this figured out T.J.?

To get into the BIOS on a Dell, you need to hit F2 before the operating system loads.  Basically, just turn the PC on and hit F2 every second until you get into that screen.  From here it will show you what is currently on your IDE channels - usually a hard drive on one and your original CD-ROM on the other.  Since you can connect two devices on each channel, pay attention to what it says for the unused connections.  Sometimes they are set to OFF.  You need to change this to AUTO so it will auto-magically detect your new drive.

On the DVD drive you need to set the jumper to either CS, Master, or Slave.  CS will hopefully work, otherwise you must set it for Master or Slave depending on which connection on the IDE cable you are using.

i gave up last night and am back at it today. in  a second i will be getting into the BIOS screen and making sure it is set to automatic.
as far as connecting the drive goes: i don't seem to have any jumpers available to me. i have the I/O BUS connection (pictures below), two four pin connectors, and a couple others which DO NOT fit into the dvd-r drive. i can see where in the back of the dvd-r drive where the it would connect, but i don't seem to have anything that fits in there. i can snap pistures if it would help. 

[T.J.]

okay i finally got this thing working and recognized by my cpu. after looking at the link scott provided me (yes, w/ the cats) i realized i wasn't looking for a cable to plug into the master/slave /cs jumper. you simply must put the plastic cover around the two pins you want the drive to act as. the dvd-r drive i was trying to install was set as the master. this was causing all my problems. i took the plastic covering and put it over the CS on the back of the dvd-r dirve. once this was done it was smooth sailing. thanks you everyone for the help +T on the house

[pfife]

+T glad you got it working.   Describing what the jumpers look like on a mb is kinda difficult... sorry!   I got stung by jumpers when I was first trying to figure out how to install a second hard drive on a Win98 machine a long time ago...

[T.J.]

okay i am revisiting this thread b/c i have encountered a weird problem. i have been using the dvd burner that i installed primarily for flac files and it has worked fine. the other day i burned a couple wav files on a dvd-r blank and tried to play it back through my computer. on most tracks the wav file is distorted. it sounds similar to a skipping cd. i not sure if my computer has issues w/ dvd-r blanks or maybe their is something wrong w/ driver. i may be able able to put a sample on later. has anyone else experienced a problem like this ?

[Ed.]

were you running other programs when you burned the wav files?  did you burn the files as audio or data files?  did the buffer get bogged down when you were burning?

with an old burner I had, if i burned anything faster than 4x then i'd get skips all over my dvds and cds.  Mainly because the write buffer kept getting bogged down.

[T.J.]

were you running other programs

no

did you burn the files as audio or data files? 

audio

did the buffer get bogged down when you were burning?
with an old burner I had, if i burned anything faster than 4x then i'd get skips all over my dvds and cds.  Mainly because the write buffer kept getting bogged down.

to my knowledge, no. fwiw i think i was burning @ 8x, i was using dvd-r, and when i installed the drive i set the jumper to CS

[Ed.]

hmm, i've never burned audio files to a dvd before other then when i make a dvd-a.  but thats a totally different process.

I'm not for sure, but that might be a problem.  I would think that if you burned the wav's as data files, you wouldn't have the problem anymore.  if the files are data files, you can still play them on your puter, just open them up and play them in winamp/foobar/windows media player.

[T.J.]

hmm, i've never burned audio files to a dvd before other then when i make a dvd-a.  but thats a totally different process.

I'm not for sure, but that might be a problem.  I would think that if you burned the wav's as data files, you wouldn't have the problem anymore.  if the files are data files, you can still play them on your puter, just open them up and play them in winamp/foobar/windows media player.

thanks ed. +t question: if you burn your masters on a dvd-r as a data file, can it still be opened in programs like cd wave and wavelab 5.0? i am trying to figure out what i will be saving for archival purposes. right now i would like to save:
1. wav files of masters untouched
2. flac files tracked/edited
3. other stuff: txt files, ffp, metadata, md5 for flac

i guess i could flac the masters and save them, but i'd rather have the master files w/o compression   

[Ed.]

yep, if you burn them as a data file you can still open them in cd wave and wavelab.  instead of having an audio file, you'll have a data file, just like the one that used to be on the pc hard drive, only it'll be stored on the dvd-r.

I usually make a single dvd-r for a night out, and on it, i'll put the master wav file, the 24bit flacs, the 16bit flacs, sometimes mp3s too, and all the info files and md5's for that disc and an info file about the night, where i sat up in the club/venue, and all the minor details.

[tapeworm48]

i installed my NEC on a dell as well, no issues.  so far, only burned two dvd+r discs as data.  the one burned in nero didnt work anywhere, really strange.  then i burned the same files using Roxio, and it worked fine. 

and FWIW, i'll burn the original wav files on 1 disc with multiple other shows on my HD, txt files and all that good stuff.  then i'll also burn FLACs on another dvd.  this way if 1 disc is damaged, i dont lose the entire gig and i'll have it available in some format elsewhere. 

[Ed.]

yeah, i should clarify, i make multiple backups, but the main backup is the disc with everything on it for the night.

[pfife]

but i'd rather have the master files w/o compression   

wise move.   

[T.J.]

yeah, i should clarify, i make multiple backups, but the main backup is the disc with everything on it for the night.

in addition to putting everything on one disc i also burn an audio copy on cdr. everntually i will get around to putting shows on the archive. that is another can of worms...

[T.J.]

yep, if you burn them as a data file you can still open them in cd wave and wavelab.  instead of having an audio file, you'll have a data file, just like the one that used to be on the pc hard drive, only it'll be stored on the dvd-r.

  getting a little confused. i am using Sonic to burn my dvd-r. i click on add files and add my wav files to burn. the files are listed as wav sounds. how can i burn as a data file instead of a wav? i have been searching through all the settings in sonic and i can't find any option which will write wav files as data. am i missing something here? i know i can compress using flac, which will be a data file. but like i said before i want to save my masters uncompressed. i feel like there should be a simple solution to this problem. any help is always appreciated guys. thanks...

[Ed.]

I've never used sonic before, but i know in nero you have the option of making a "data dvd" - I just do that and drag the wav's into the program and burn it.

[T.J.]

I've never used sonic before, but i know in nero you have the option of making a "data dvd" - I just do that and drag the wav's into the program and burn it.

i finally grabbed a copy of nero. f'in sweet. but i still have the same problem. i think i am going to try and reinstall the drive when i have time. i set the jumper to CS. this time i will set it to SLAVE.

[dnsacks]

tj, so you're still having the issue that you get skips when trying to play back wav files burned to a dvd. 

From your description above (you're burning wav and flac files to the same dvd), it sounds like you're burning data disks.  CAn you play flac files of the same songs off the dvd without skipping/distortion?

If so, what happens if you copy a wav file off of the dvd and onto a hard drive?  Does playing back the wav file from the hard drive cause skipping/distortion?

If no distortion on the file copied to a hard drive, perhaps it's simply a matter of your drive/computer being too slow to effectively read the wav file (more data per minute of music than a flac file) off the dvd disk for live playback. 

Another thought is whether your dvd drive is being accessed by windows in DMA mode (good) or PIO mode (bad).

[T.J.]

aight folks, i am revisting this thread again b/c i need to get this burner working. it may already be working, but i'm not sure. i reinstalled this driver and everything seems fine. it is set up as the "slave" drive and burns fine using nero. i am trying to burn both flac and wav files to dvd.

CAn you play flac files of the same songs off the dvd without skipping/distortion?

If so, what happens if you copy a wav file off of the dvd and onto a hard drive?  Does playing back the wav file from the hard drive cause skipping/distortion?

If no distortion on the file copied to a hard drive, perhaps it's simply a matter of your drive/computer being too slow to effectively read the wav file (more data per minute of music than a flac file) off the dvd disk for live playback. 

Another thought is whether your dvd drive is being accessed by windows in DMA mode (good) or PIO mode (bad).

i cannot play either flac or wav files from the burned dvd without skipping. however, when i copy the file from the dvd to the desktop it plays fine without any skipping. is this an indication that maybe the dvd's are burning fine and my ploblem is simply with playback? i've tried the burned dvd in both dvd players on my computer, haven't tried on another cpu.

if it is only a playback issue, how can i fix this problem?

i'm not sure if the dvd drive is being accessed by windows in DMA or PIO mode. how can i check this?

thanks guys.

[T.J.]

aight folks, i am revisting this thread again b/c i need to get this burner working. it may already be working, but i'm not sure. i reinstalled this driver and everything seems fine. it is set up as the "slave" drive and burns fine using nero. i am trying to burn both flac and wav files to dvd.

CAn you play flac files of the same songs off the dvd without skipping/distortion?

If so, what happens if you copy a wav file off of the dvd and onto a hard drive?  Does playing back the wav file from the hard drive cause skipping/distortion?

If no distortion on the file copied to a hard drive, perhaps it's simply a matter of your drive/computer being too slow to effectively read the wav file (more data per minute of music than a flac file) off the dvd disk for live playback. 

Another thought is whether your dvd drive is being accessed by windows in DMA mode (good) or PIO mode (bad).

i cannot play either flac or wav files from the burned dvd without skipping. however, when i copy the file from the dvd to the desktop it plays fine without any skipping. is this an indication that maybe the dvd's are burning fine and my ploblem is simply with playback? i've tried the burned dvd in both dvd players on my computer, haven't tried on another cpu.

if it is only a playback issue, how can i fix this problem?

i'm not sure if the dvd drive is being accessed by windows in DMA or PIO mode. how can i check this?

thanks guys.

fwiw i am certain the burner is burning properly b/c i brought a dvd i burned into my work computer and it plays fine. so how can i get the dvd drive on my computer to play it back? do i need more RAM/ROM soundcard, etc..

sorry for the uneducated questions. i really don't know much about this and can't find many resources.

[Ed.]

it seems a little odd that you have enough ram to burn the dvd, but not enough ram to play it from the dvd.

do you know how much ram you have installed?  and how fast do you burn the disc?  If you can whip out a burned disc in a few minutes, writiing at 8x or 16x, but when you play it back it skips, I'd say there's something wrong with the playback feature on the drive.

I dunno, I'm kind of scratching my head on this one.

[T.J.]

it seems a little odd that you have enough ram to burn the dvd, but not enough ram to play it from the dvd.

do you know how much ram you have installed?  and how fast do you burn the disc?  If you can whip out a burned disc in a few minutes, writiing at 8x or 16x, but when you play it back it skips, I'd say there's something wrong with the playback feature on the drive.

I dunno, I'm kind of scratching my head on this one.

thanks for the response ed +T

i'm not sure how much RAM i have installed b/c i'm at work. i can check when i get home. i recently burned two data dvd's (1 +R/1 -R) and one audio cdr using nero @ 8x. i can burn a dvd in a little under an hr. and a cdr in a couple minutes. none play without skipping on my computer using either disc drives. however they all playback fine on any other computer.

i then burned a cdr on my computer from the files on the burned dvd-r (which skips during playback). the cdr burns fine and plays without skips. this leads me to believe both disc drives burn properly but can't playback.
i'm scratching my head too. it has to be a simple problem, but i can't figure it out.

[kcmoejoe]

i'm not sure if the dvd drive is being accessed by windows in DMA or PIO mode. how can i check this?

this might help... http://winhlp.com/WxDMA.htm

[T.J.]

i'm not sure if the dvd drive is being accessed by windows in DMA or PIO mode. how can i check this?

this might help... http://winhlp.com/WxDMA.htm

awesome KC
this looks like it could be a solution:

Possible causes for falling back to PIO mode
The most frequent use why a CD or DVD port falls back to PIO mode is a scratched or otherwise unreadable CD or DVD.

However, there are a few reasons why a computer may use PIO instead of DMA, particularly when it's the hard disk port that falls back, not a CD/DVD drive port. For example, David Duberman reported in 2005 that some Dell computers have DMA disabled in their BIOS by default for the second hard disk. So it is a good idea to check the BIOS settings first.
Other reasons can show up in the event log, so check this first and see if you can find repeated Atapi errors recorded. If so, you likely have a hardware defect. You can use the procedure described below, but your computer will probably fall back to PIO mode again and again, until you solve the underlying problem, which may be located inside the device, on the motherboard, or in the IDE data cable and its connectors.

first i'm going to check this when i get home from work.
thank you very much +T

[T.J.]

OKAY........................
it turns out my Secondary IDE Channel was set to PIO mode. i was able to successfully set the transfer mode back to Ultra DMA Mode 2 for Device 0 (which i believe is the dvd drive i have installed.) device 1 is still set to PIO mode. but correct me if i'm wrong but this shouldn't matter b/c i only have one device connected to the Secondary IDE Channel. right?

my Primary IDE Channel Device 0(which i believe is the cdr drive that's functioning properly) is set to Ultra DMA Mode 5. it says that Device 1 is not applicable.

Regardless...the DVD drive STILL skips during playback!!! ahhh

do you know how much ram you have installed? 

fwiw i have 512 MB of RAM installed on the CPU

i can't believe i can't this thing working properly.



maybe i can get some help from the feline 

[kcmoejoe]

ok, .... first your Primary IDE channel is your Hard Drive (set to DMA mode) thats good.

Your Secondary IDE channel is your CDR and DVD drives, you have them piggybacked on the cable as master and slave right ?  my guess is Device 0 (master) would be your original CDR drive (set to DMA)
and the Device 1 (slave) has got to be your DVD drive that you need to somehow get in DMA mode.

Did you try to change it by going to My Computer > Properties > Hardware > Device Manager > IDE controllers >Secondary channel > Advanced > change to DMA mode  ?

I feel your pain, I went through this with a computer years ago, and it was hell getting it to work.
and then the next drive I bought had no problems installing and setting itself automatically to DMA.

good luck!

[T.J.]

ok, .... first your Primary IDE channel is your Hard Drive (set to DMA mode) thats good.

Your Secondary IDE channel is your CDR and DVD drives, you have them piggybacked on the cable as master and slave right ?  my guess is Device 0 (master) would be your original CDR drive (set to DMA)
and the Device 1 (slave) has got to be your DVD drive that you need to somehow get in DMA mode.

Did you try to change it by going to My Computer > Properties > Hardware > Device Manager > IDE controllers >Secondary channel > Advanced > change to DMA mode  ?

I feel your pain, I went through this with a computer years ago, and it was hell getting it to work.
and then the next drive I bought had no problems installing and setting itself automatically to DMA.

good luck!

this all makes sense. i thought the Primary IDE was my CDR drive. but my CDR drive is actually Device 0 one the Secondary IDE (which is working properly and set to DMA. the DVD drive is definitely piggybacked on the Secondary IDE as Device 1. I tried going to My Computer > Properties > Hardware > Device Manager > IDE controllers >Secondary channel > Advanced > change to DMA mode. the box for Device 1 is grey, not allowing me to switch the Current Transfer Mode from PIO to DMA. the Transfer Mode box above that is set to "DMA if Available."

Device 0 was set to PIO last night, too. i was able to change it back to DMA mode by following these steps:

Run REGEDIT. Go to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

It has subkeys like 0000, 0001, 0002, etc. Normally 0001 is the primary IDE channel, 0002 the secondary, but other numbers can occur under certain circumstances. You have to go through these subkeys and check the DriverDesc value until you find the proper IDE channel.

Delete MasterIdDataChecksum or SlaveIdDataChecksum, depending on whether the device in question is attached as master or slave, but it can't actually hurt to delete both. Reboot. The drive DMA capabilities will be redetected.

i deleted both IdDataChecksum's and fixed Device 0, however it didn't fix Device 1. i'm wondering if i should take the next step:

if this doesn't work, check also the dword value MasterDeviceTimingModeAllowed, whose default value is hex 0xFFFFFFFF. If you have a much smaller value, you can try to set it back to its default and reboot for a test.

or

It's three keys that work together:

MasterDeviceTimingMode
UserMasterDeviceTimingModeAllowed
MasterDeviceTimingModeAllowed

MasterDeviceTimingMode:

Queried by the drive. Each bit means a permitted transfer mode that the device is capable of. Somewhere at MS some of these bits can be looked up.

UserMasterDeviceTimingModeAllowed:

Has the same structure as MasterDeviceTimingMode and has the bit values the user configures in Device Manager. 0xffffffff allows all modes that are set in MasterDeviceTimingMode as well.

MasterDeviceTimingModeAllowed:

This entry is the problem child. Normally not present in XP, it is created as a reaction to errors. This entry has absolute priority.

These parameters also exist for the slave drive as SlaveDeviceTimingMode, etc.

[kcmoejoe]

yes you could try that next step just remember that messing around in the REGEDIT can cause big problems if you delete or change the wrong thing (be careful to follow the instructions), or use the alternative, that one user said fixed his by simply uninstalling the secondary channel in device manager, rebooting, and letting windows re-install the secondary channel.

Alternative Method—Uninstalling the Port
1. Uninstall the secondary IDE port
To do that, open Device Manager as follows. Right-click on My Computer, select Properties, click on the Hardware tag, click on the Device Manager button, click on the plus sign to the left of IDE ATA/ATAPI Controller, right-click on Secondary IDE Channel, click on Uninstall. Deactivating is not enough.

Reboot to make the changes active and permanent.

After booting Windows will automatically reinstall the IDE channel and the DVD (or CD) drive. This Plug-n-Play process can take a little while, so give it a minute after the boot process finishes.

[T.J.]

yes you could try that next step just remember that messing around in the REGEDIT can cause big problems if you delete or change the wrong thing (be careful to follow the instructions)

this is what i'm afraid of. i guess i'll try another unistall/reinstall. looking back on this thread made me realize how much of a learning process this has been.  when i started i didn't even know how to access my BIOS screen 

i'm grateful for all the help and advise guys.

i'm determined to get this thing running properly and can tell i'm close.

[Ed.]

+t to you both for working on figuring this out.  I've never did any of this stuff, so its all news to me.

Its kind of funny, you start out not knowing anything about computers until something goes wrong with yours...TJ, you're gonna be a pro by the time you get this drive installed.

[T.J.]

+t to you both for working on figuring this out.  I've never did any of this stuff, so its all news to me.

Its kind of funny, you start out not knowing anything about computers until something goes wrong with yours...TJ, you're gonna be a pro by the time you get this drive installed.

i know...I see an "Archive Thread" in my future so others can figure this out without the time and effort.

[dnsacks]

TJ -- I have a STRONG suspicion that your entire problem will be solved if you disconnect your cdrom drive's ide cable, set your dvd drive to master, and use the dvd drive for all cd and dvd-related functions. (i.e. disable your cdrom drive all together)

Sounds to me like your computer/bios/drives/etc. are having a hard time playing nice together on the same ide channel.  Though this would put more wear and tear on your dvd drive, with prices dropping so low for these, IMHO, that's not a big deal.

[T.J.]

TJ -- I have a STRONG suspicion that your entire problem will be solved if you disconnect your cdrom drive's ide cable, set your dvd drive to master, and use the dvd drive for all cd and dvd-related functions. (i.e. disable your cdrom drive all together)

Sounds to me like your computer/bios/drives/etc. are having a hard time playing nice together on the same ide channel.  Though this would put more wear and tear on your dvd drive, with prices dropping so low for these, IMHO, that's not a big deal.

you may be right. i have already determined this as a last resort. i'm also considered setting up the dvd drive as the master and cdr as slave.

[dnsacks]

TJ, I'd start by removing the cd drive from the equation and see if the dvd drive works properly when set as the master drive and as the only drive on that ide channel.  If the dvd drive does work correctly, you could then try putting the cd drive back in service as the slave drive.  Good luck!

[kcmoejoe]

TJ, I'd start by removing the cd drive from the equation and see if the dvd drive works properly when set as the master drive and as the only drive on that ide channel.  If the dvd drive does work correctly, you could then try putting the cd drive back in service as the slave drive.  Good luck!

good idea! I hadn't even thought of this, like he said take the cdr drive out of the equation, or completely out!
Your dvd drive can do both, there is really no need for having both drives. You may find this to be a problem with your particular motherboard in your system, may need updated drivers, bad cable, etc... I haven't read the entire thread but is there a reason you need both drives ?

[T.J.]

TJ, I'd start by removing the cd drive from the equation and see if the dvd drive works properly when set as the master drive and as the only drive on that ide channel.  If the dvd drive does work correctly, you could then try putting the cd drive back in service as the slave drive.  Good luck!

good idea! I hadn't even thought of this, like he said take the cdr drive out of the equation, or completely out!
Your dvd drive can do both, there is really no need for having both drives. You may find this to be a problem with your particular motherboard in your system, may need updated drivers, bad cable, etc... I haven't read the entire thread but is there a reason you need both drives ?

at this point, on principle alone 

seriously though, the drive that is working is a cdr burner/dvd player and troublesome one is both a cdr/dvd burner. so technically no it is not necessary to have both, only the latter. i would like to have both so i can easily make copies utilizing both drives.

[kcmoejoe]

I hear ya!     it would cut out having to copy an image file to the hard drive, then putting in the blank to burn the image to. this is how I have to do mine, just because I only have one drive for eveything.
But definately give that a try switching the drives around and remember to change the jumpers for master and slave, but stick to it, you'll eventually come up with something that works.

[T.J.]

so i was back at it today....

i started by switching each drive. i set up the dvd burner as the master and the cdr as the slave. as i suspected the dvd burner worked and the cdr doesn't. whichever drive is set up as the master works fine. the drive set up as the slave has playback problems. this playback issue has to caused by device 1 being set to PIO.

i did try to uninstall the secondary IDE following the instructions given by KC and made an intereting discovery. the secondary IDE reinstalled after rebooting and device 1 went directly to PIO mode.

i really believe if i can change device 1 to DMA my playback problem will be solved. time to ask the IT guys @ work 

[T.J.]

in the words of Flava Flav......"YEAH BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOY!!!"



i finally got both devices to run on DMA (for now  )

here is what finally worked:

1. i noticed when i tried to reinstall my Secondary IDE drive Device 0 would install in DMA mode but Device 1 (the troublesome drive) would revert to PIO regardless if it was set to DMA if available.

2. i uninstalled the Secondary IDE again and rebooted the CPU. i went to my BIOS screen and made sure both devices (Master and Slave) on the Secondary IDE were checked to AUTO.
****Make sure when you leave the BIOS screen you hit ESC and SAVE THE SETTINGS. i really think this is what i was doing wrong****

3. after the CPU detected and installed the new hardware i prompted me to restart the CPU to complete the installation and BOOM! Device 0 and 1 are both running on Ultra DMA 2.

a big thanks and a lot of +T's to everyone you helped me out. i hope this thread can be helpful to anyone else who encounters this problem.

here are a couple links that i found helpful:

http://winhlp.com/WxDMA.htm
http://www.aiscl.co.uk/How_to_ForceDMA.htm
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim2100/syssetup.htm
http://www.onthegosoft.com/dma_setting_nt.htm

feel free to PM me if anyone needs help. i guess in a prefect world installing a DVD drive should take no time, but with computers you never know 

[Ed.]

excellent!  +t

[kcmoejoe]

good job!     another +T for you man. way to stick to it and get 'er done.