IDE, UDMA, and DVD questions

Lemming

Got a couple of questions here if anyone cares to answer:


1. Primary IDE & "80 conductor" messages

I have 2 IDE channels (Abit KG-7 mobo) with 4 devices connected.
Primary IDE is an IBM 41GB hdd (master) and Plextor 24x10x40 Burner (Slave)
Secondary IDE is an LG 16x DVD drive (master) and a zip250 drive

Whenever I boot up, I get this message saying "Primary IDE has no 80 conductor cable" (or something to that effect - can't check right now - in work).

It seems to have started when I connected the cd burner as slave. Now ... the only problem really seems to be that Nero (5.5) takes AAAAAAAGES to load up. It's possible there's other performance hits going on elsewhere.

Anyway of rectifying this little problem?


2. UDMA 100 devices and BIOS that say "nope .. udma 33 only"

My HDD is UDMA 100, the Mobo is capable of taking these devices, yet the system screen at start up is only registering the HDD at udma 33. Any way of rectifying this?


3. DVD problems??
Are LG DVD drives prone to problems reading DVDs??que

BattlingCheese

AFAIK IDE channel speed is only as fast as the slowest device on the cable so your CD Burner might only support UDMA 33 thus forcing your HD to do like wise.

Also UDMA100 needs a special IDA cable called, funnily enough an 80 pin conducter cable or something. I assume you have one of these?

Lemming

Originally posted by BattlingCheese
Also UDMA100 needs a special IDA cable called, funnily enough an 80 pin conducter cable or something. I assume you have one of these?

ummm ... yeahhhhhh ... I just rememered to feed the cat

/me runs very quickly to the nearest IT shop

Mr. Fancypants

Yep, think you need that 80 pin cable. Also, i would recommend popping the Cd burner on as a Master device on the IDE channel or get yourself and IDE control card. You will get much faster performace when writing cds etc.

Hope that helps


MB

po0k

Try configging like this:
Primary (1st) IDE channel/connector:
Master:IBM Hdd
Slave:DVD

Secondary (2nd) IDE channel/connector:
Master:Burner
Slave:Zip drive

Get two of those 80-wire dual-head cables. They have 3 connectors on them, one for the motherboard (off on its own end) and two closer together for the drives (the heads i speak of).
The master is generally the last connector and the slave the one in the middle, though this is not set in stone, and may infact only matter if you select 'Cable-select' on the jumpers at the back.
I'm hoping the DVD is a UDMA66, or (unlikely) the Zip is.
The Burner shouldn't be on the same cable as the hard drive.
You'll get faster and much more reliable burns with them on seperate channels.
You should use the hard drive to cache the stuff anyways. On-the-fly burning is to be discouraged
You might have to juggle the drives around a bit, and take your time.
Don't force or stretch any cables to get them to fit in or you risk bending pins and other such nasty stuff.
BTW, this is more suited to the tech boards then the Hardware tweaking boards imho

Inspector Gadget

As I've learned to my cost (in terms of time, at least) some optical drives (CD Burners, DVD-ROMs, etc.) require that you select "Cable Select" on the jumpers on the back for their UDMA modes to switch on. Weird, but true.

Gadget

po0k

I have a Plextor 1640TA burner and there's a jumper at the back to let it run at UDMA33 (more for the low CPU usage then the transfer speed tbh) - though it's not officially supported
I had it as slave to an AOpen 1640 DVD drive (fully UDMA33 tested) running Win98 and then 2k for a while.
I switched the config around, while on 2k, and it suddenly refused to go to UDMA33 anymroe.
I *Might* have flashed the firmware, but I don't think anything was immediately apparent after flashing it and it stopped working a week aftwerwards.
Might try that jumper trick so, thx Gadget