Jumper for CD Rom

[bpatters69]

Hello folks,

I have a Dell Precision 410 workstation that is running Windows XP Pro. When I originally set up the system everything worked pretty well. The only glitch was the CD which would skip when it played music CDs. The CD would install programs fine as I installed Windows XP from the CD.

One other point I forgot to mention, this is my mother in laws PC. The reason I bring this point up is I have no idea what she has been doing with the PC. I can't imagine she has done anything to awful as I have limited her user capabilities to the basic stuff. She can't install programs or delete anything important.

Now for the questions. When I go into System under control panel, the CD does not show up at all. I tried an add/remove hardward and Windows XP could not find the CD. I tried doing a manual add hardware and none of the windows that popped up gave me an option for a CD.

1. As silly as I feel asking, how does one add a CD to Windows XP?
2. From a jumper standpoint, which jumper config should I chose? I believe the options are master, slave and CSEL - computer select, I think.

Thanks, Bill

 

[bpatters69]

Hello Folks,

I never did get any feedback on this post. Can anyone help? Just as an update. I just need to know which jumper setting to use, Master or CSEL. This is the only CD in the system so SLAVE would not make sense. I am thinking that if I get the jumper right, all my troubles will go away. Right?

Thanks, Bill

 

[Zepper]

It depends. If the CD is the only drive on the cable (channel), then it could be set to CS or Master and connected to the end of the cable (should never have a cable end dangling beyond a device). If it is on a cable with another device, then both devices should be set to the same protocol (either CS or M/S). If set to CS, then the master drive will be the one at the end of the cable (which by convention should be the HD if there is one on the cable). If set to M/S, then it shouldn't matter which drive is at the end and which is in the middle, but convention has it that the Master drive should still be at the end of the cable.
. CS setting means the cable tells the drive which it is, M/S setting means the drive tells the cable which it is... M/S settings can also be used on CS cables and the CS lines will just be ignored.
. Cable Select function depends on using a Cable Select cable. All 80-wire cables are supposed to be built for CS. Some 40-wire cables can also be CS, but usually those will be OEM cables from big box pushers like Dell or Compaq and they will have marks on them saying which connector is for master, which for slave (could also be marked Primary/Secondary or DrvA/DrvB) and which goes to the mobo - often the master will be in the middle on the 40-wire CS cables as that's the easiest (read cheapest ) way to make them. On 80-wire cables (UATA) the blue connector must goto the mobo, the end (black connector) is always master and the middle (gray connector) is always slave.
.bh.

 

[bpatters69]

My set-up is that the hard drive and CD Rom are on the same cable connection. My computer is a tower and the hard drive is closer to the system board (the controller is built onto the board) so the hard drive connects on the first connection on the cable and the CD connects at the end of the same cable.

I am not sure how to tell how the HD is set up. I would assume that is is set up as a master? Would I then hook up the CD as a slave? I guess I could take out the hard disk and check the jumper settings.

Any advice? Thanks for your help.

****Update. My PC has seen the CD but the PC hangs on the screen when it says Dell. Sometimes it proceeds to the next screen where it says that the PC cannot see the primary HD. When it does proceed, I just hit F1 and the PC starts up. When it does not proceed, I ctr-alt-del. I have the CD set on CS. The PC is a Pentium 3, 500Mhz - so it is not too old.*********

 

[Gunbuster]

do the drives detect right in the BIOS (F2) ?

 

[bpatters69]

I got the PC to recognize the CD over the weekend. The HD is still iffy and Maxtor thinks it may be defective.....Oh, well. Thanks to all.