A faulty Dim 8400 ide cable?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

I am installing a second optical drive (NEC 3520A DVD-RW) to a
Dimension 8400. The problem I'm having is that the drive seems to skip
or was not as clear as the first drive. In other words, putting movie
DVD or music CDs or even applications on CDs in the new drive had
almost constant static/skipping problems.

The setup is as follows:
The first drive was the original DVD-ROM from Dell (Cable select, black
connector of ide cable)
Second drive is the DVD-RW (cable select, gray connector of ide cable)

The problem appears to be the gray connector, as I tried swapping the
DVD-RW on the black connector and putting the Dell DVD-ROM with the
gray connector, and the Dell DVD-ROM showed the same static/skipping
problems.

Is this a faulty IDE cable, or is it something else (BIOS?)?

Your help is appreciated.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

You need to go into the BIOS and change the drive from OFF to AUTO. It will
work in OFF, but in PIO mode, resulting in the poor performance. Once change
to AUTO, it will work in DMA mode, which should fix the problem.

Tom
<james545@my-deja.com> wrote in message
news:1116807662.531894.140990@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
>I am installing a second optical drive (NEC 3520A DVD-RW) to a
> Dimension 8400. The problem I'm having is that the drive seems to skip
> or was not as clear as the first drive. In other words, putting movie
> DVD or music CDs or even applications on CDs in the new drive had
> almost constant static/skipping problems.
>
> The setup is as follows:
> The first drive was the original DVD-ROM from Dell (Cable select, black
> connector of ide cable)
> Second drive is the DVD-RW (cable select, gray connector of ide cable)
>
> The problem appears to be the gray connector, as I tried swapping the
> DVD-RW on the black connector and putting the Dell DVD-ROM with the
> gray connector, and the Dell DVD-ROM showed the same static/skipping
> problems.
>
> Is this a faulty IDE cable, or is it something else (BIOS?)?
>
> Your help is appreciated.
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

I got caught with this too. PIO mode when drive set to OFF.

Brian



"Tom Scales" <tomtoo@softhome.net> wrote in message
news:txake.64622$IO.43683@tornado.tampabay.rr.com...
> You need to go into the BIOS and change the drive from OFF to AUTO. It
> will work in OFF, but in PIO mode, resulting in the poor performance. Once
> change to AUTO, it will work in DMA mode, which should fix the problem.
>
> Tom
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Worked. Thanks!

Brian K wrote:
> I got caught with this too. PIO mode when drive set to OFF.
>
> Brian
>
>
>
> "Tom Scales" <tomtoo@softhome.net> wrote in message
> news:txake.64622$IO.43683@tornado.tampabay.rr.com...
> > You need to go into the BIOS and change the drive from OFF to AUTO.
It
> > will work in OFF, but in PIO mode, resulting in the poor
performance. Once
> > change to AUTO, it will work in DMA mode, which should fix the
problem.
> >
> > Tom
> >