Can someone verify something on udma66 cables?

[Cougar]

MSBHVN...

You have a very good point. Although I'm sure my cousin wouldn't agree with you

Mem...

It's not that I don't trust you guys, it's just that I wanna be 100% sure that this stuff is set up right from the very beginning so that I don't have problems later on. It seems like most people agree that the blue end goes in the motherboard (after all the motherboard connector is blue), but it's still sort of up in the air as to the priority of the black and grey connectors.

How do I get russ in here so he can help?

 

[Mem]

My cable is colour coded blue, black etc, it came with my Promise ATA-66 card, IBM recommeded you buy a Promise ATA-66 card to use on their ATA-66 harddrives if your m/b does not support ATA-66 like mine does not.I INSTALLED MINE BY THE PROMISE MANUAL.

 

[CQuinn]

Cougar, I think you are getting the "keyed" connector for the IDE
device mixed up with the color coordinated connectors on some
UDMA66 cables.

Basically, the "key" is the plastic tab on one side of the connector
that keeps you from plugging it into the device the wrong way.
The colors (as best I can tell) are only suggestive of the way
that most people will expect to plug in the cable - one end
goes to the Drive Controller, the other end is expected to be the
Master device, and the middle is Slave. Whichever end you plug
into the board, the other two should work as Master/Slave.

The bigger problem for you, I think, is that you will need to make sure you get a long enough UDMA66 cable to reach all the devices properly.
Most cables are set to be longer between the controller and the
slave device than between the slave and master.


Train: Have you ever heard of Cable Select? It is a way of determining the order of devices based on where they are plugged in on the cable.
(IIRC the end connected device is made Master, and the other connection is made Slave).
Some devices support an extra jumper position to allow for that
(on one system here I have a Maxtor drive and an HP CDRW attached
this way).

 

[Cougar]

hmmm.....I've done some searching on msi's website and here's what I found in their faq section:

PID# 1374
Problem: I have one HDD Maxtor 13.6GB UDMA66, one HDD Maxtor UDMA33, one DVD-ROM, and one CD-RW. Need advice on how to setup. If I have a UDMA33 HDD connected, will it slow down the UDMA66 HDD?.
Solution: Place the UDMA66 HDD on Pri Master and set the UDMA33 HDD on Pri slave. The DVD-ROM and CD-RW are on Sec channel. Note: UDMA33 will not slow down the UDMA66 HDD, but it just operates at ATA33 itself.

PID# 1406
Problem: I have a MS-6167 and get the message "No 80 pin connector detected", have tried multiple ATA66 cable but same issue. I have Matrox 9.1 UDMA66 and bios ver 1.3.
Solution: You need to verify that the blue connector is connected to the mainboard and the black connector is connected to the HDD.

It's not quite the same as my cousin's setup, but it's close. Anyway, it seems as if I'm going to have to put the hdd on top of the ls-120, and put the zip drive in a 5 1/4" mounting bracket and place it under the dvd drive.

 

[Cougar]

CQuinn...

I know that "keyed" refers to the little plastic tab that keeps you from installing the cable the wrong way. It was a typographical error on my part. What I meant to say was color coded, but I always ended up typing keyed instead. Sorry for any confusion.

 

[The Stigenator]

I dont get it.. You know I built someone a machine with a MSI BX Master and I plugged teh Blue on the Harddrive.. worked fine. But then later due to something else, I unplugged it and put the Blue to the MB.

 

[DaddyG]

The blue end goes to the mobo or controller because this is the end that has the 40 ground wires actually connected to ground. If all 3 connectors had the ground wires grounded, a massive ground loop would be set up. If the connectors are not colored, then the 2 connectors closest together are for the drives. Some drives won't even detect properly if the cable is backwards, others may only run ATA33. It's not a recommendation, its a requirement for correct ATA66 operation.

 

[Mem]

Thankyou DaddyG,I been trying to tell them that is what my Promise manual says(about which colour goes where) some guys here don`t even trust Promise the company.

 

[AngelOfDeath]

My friend tried to plug it in differently because of the positions of the HD's. But it didn't work until he made the slave to master and master to slave.

I didn't think that it could have that much to say but it does .

Instead of switching the slave to master etc. he managed to bend the cables so it fit the right way .

AoD

 

[Cougar]

Mem....

I did some rearranging and I managed to keep the ls-120 drive on top of the hard drive and I was still able to use the udma66 cable. It would have been a little easier if they made the connectors between the master and slave devices a little further apart but at least I was able to somewhat preserve the design of the system and still utilize udma66. I'm installing win98 on the system right now and everything seems to be going ok.

Thanks everyone for for your help.

 

[Mem]

Cougar,I have been reading the Asus CUSL2 & AV7 manuals in PDF format & they do definetly state blue goes in at motherboard end so you now have Promise & Asus both showing the same(right) way of connecting the cable.

 

[Scorpion]

Arg, not this thread again. Didn't any of you read what I said earlier? I've got my HDs connected in different orders that what they say. That's only "RECOMMENED" it's not the final truth people. Mine work any which way.

Think about it... ITS JUST A LONG F*CKIN CABLE. As long as you keep pins connected to the motherboard right, you can connect them any damn way you want. I even stuck the black end in the motherboard and it works. It's a fricken 1 way cable people. It has 2 terminal ends with 1 clip attached in the middle. It does not matter how you connect them along the wire! Unless you are using Cable Select! If your HD/CD-ROM/DVD/ZIP or WHATEVER the hell you are using has Jumper settings on it? Then that's ALL that matters.

 

[Terp]

....no need to get nasty, M'lord =)

 

[DaddyG]

Scorpion,
What you say is correct for 'Regular' h/d cables, you can use any connector anywhere, and I have. But the 66 cable is different because of the 40 extra ground wires. The connectors are only 40 pins so the grounds are connected 'internally' in the blue connector, which Must connect to the mobo/controller for the correct interface specs. The extra grounds minimize 'crosstalk' between the signals at 66 speeds.

 

[random]

Please correct me if I'm wrong:

I was under the impression that if you stuck a non udma/66 drive on the same cable, the whole thing ran at the slower speed.

Am I mistaken?

 

[Scorpion]

DaddyG, you're probably right even though I still don't see how that makes a difference. But I was more pointing out that the Grey and Black didn't necessarily mean Master and Slave and you had to connect them "exactly" that way.

But even if they are all grounded together in 1 end of the cable, if you plugged the other end into the Motherboard, the connection would still ground to all the other cables. The wires are still all connected together, and it's still plugged into the board.

 

[Mem]

Random ,you need a ATA-66 cable to get the full benefit of a ATA-66/100 harddrive,you can use normal cables but will loose some performance.

 

[BlackFalcon]

No, Mem, I think what random is asking is this:
Using a 66 controller with a 66 cable connected to 1 66 Hdd and another device that is not 66 (ex: a CD-ROM).
Will the HDD still operate ate 66Mb/s? I have an interest in this as well. Posted it in a thread quite a while ago but never got any replies.

 

[Mem]

It should do ,I always run my DVD ROM on secondary cable,some people say you loose performance if you put both on same cable, but on some test from some websites this is not the case whom do you believe?I just keep mine separate.Why I got a spare(secondary) cable so like to use it.I think if he cannot move it to another cable just make sure it`s a ATA-66 cable to get the best possible speed from a ATA-66 Harddrive.