Help With IDE Drives

[BigAl3du]

Hey Guys,

I am a fairly experienced computer builder and I recently started a consulting company on the side and ran into a very odd problem the other day. I went over to the clients workplace to install a cd burner, which should normally be a VERY easy installation. Upon opening the case I found that the the computer was using a Asus CUSL2 (great mobo), a P3 866, 256MB ram, a visiontek geforce 2 mx vid card, adn some other random peripherals. However, it only had a CD drive and a hard drive, but the hard drive was connected to the first IDE bus using a dual-device ribbon (master and slave connectors), but on the second IDE bus the CD drive only used a single device (only master, which I have never seen before). I proceeded to install a dual-device ribbon on the second IDE bus to connect both cd drives, but once I booted it up it didn't show any devices. I then hooked up just one cd drive to the dual-device ribbon and wouldn't work either, I checked all the jumpers and they were set to master and slave, respectively. However, when I put the one-device cable back in it booted fine. What can I do have both cd drives work? Is there a BIOS setting I am missing or what? I have used the CUSL2 motherboard before and didn't have any problems. Any help is great appreciated! Thanks!

 

[AndyHui]

Are you sure that your double headed IDE cable actually works?

 

[oldfart]

In the BIOS, is the IDE channel set to "Auto" or "None"?

 

[AndyHui]

Ah....that too.

Just goes to show that my head doesn't work too well at 5:40am in the morning without sleep....

 

[BigAl3du]

<< In the BIOS, is the IDE channel set to "Auto" or "None"? >>



It was set to Auto, is that right?

the weird thing is no devices worked without this single headed IDE cableon the 2nd bus, not even the HD which wason the first IDE channel? strange huh?

yes, the double-headed IDE cable worked, but I will try again, but my main concern is why nothing works without this single cable?

what other bios settings could I be overseeing? I checked all the IDE related ones and them seemed normal.

 

[BigAl3du]

well, I just went over and tried again and I fixed it. I just took the easy route and switched the HD to the secondary IDE on the single-headed cable and switched the two cd drives to the primary IDE on the double-headed cable. its kinda a cheap setup for anyone that actually looks in the BIOS settings, but its not my computer so I don't care. Thanks for the help guys.

 

[oldfart]

Auto is correct. You can enable/disable Primary and Secondary IDE's in the BIOS also, but that doesn't sound like your problem. You sure the power connections are good? Do the CD trays open and close?