Not recognizing secondary master 2

[Guest_imported]

I have a problem. I've got a HD as primary master, a CD-ROM as primary slave and a CD-RW (Lite-On) as secondary master. This worked fine for 10 minutes, but the the computer jammed (locked up), and now the system refuses to find anything from secondary master; in the start-up, the HD and CD-ROM are found, but nothing from secondary master.

I've played around with BIOS, but no changes in the settings have helped in the situation.

The OS is Windows 98.

Any ideas, what might help?

 

[Guest_imported]

Oh, yes. The drive does receive power, as the light blinks in the startup and I can open and close it. Also, as I said, it did work fine for 10 minutes.

 

[cdogg]

Try the CDROM as the secondary master in place of your CDRW temporarily to see if it's recognized. This would at least help you determine if the secondary controller will even work.

Sounds like you may have accidently damaged one or more pins on the CDRW. Also see if it will work on the primary IDE controller.


~cdogg

 

[ANFPS26]

Did you make sure the Lite-ON jumper is set to Master when you installed it? Also, it is not recommened to have a CD-RW or CR-ROM as slave to the Hard Drive it slows the hard drive way down. Another thing to check is to make sure all three drives are set to "DMA" mode in Device Manager.
You might boot to safe mode and remove both CD drives in Device manager and re-boot and let the system re-install. To get that Lite-On to run "DMA" look at the read me file on the floppy disk that comes with it to see how to do it. You have to add /DMA in Config.sys to get it to work. "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing....."

 

[ANFPS26]

Actually, my advice on the /DMA setting applies to a Lite-On CD-ROM drive. You may not have to do that to a Lite-ON CD-RW. (not sure) "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing....."

 

[Guest_imported]

Alrighty, I tried some new combinations:

CD-ROM as primary slave, no CD-RW: Works.
CR-RW as primary slave, no CD-ROM: Works.
CD-ROM as secondary master, no CD-RW: Works.
CD-RW as secondary master, no CD-ROM: Works.
CD-RW as secondary master, CD-ROM as its slave: neither gets detected.

So, the drives work as long as they are not connected to the computer at the same time.

I've checked and double-checked all the jumpers, too. Also, when I got the system working properly for 10 mins, I did check the DMA settings and they were running on DMA mode.

 

[cdogg]

I don't recommend this combination, but try it to see if it would work:

CD-RW as primary slave, CD-ROM as secondary master

It doesn't make sense that if the two are on different IDE channels they would affect one another. Must be something else going on.

Hmmm...

 

[Guest_imported]

CD-RW as primary slave and CD-ROM as secondary master actually works - of course, it's possible that after a while the system will lock up like it did earlier.

This really is bizarre.

 

[baddog3266]

I had a similar problem both on same channel
you could try this worked for me
cdrom as master and cdr/w as slave can not have the cdr/w as master

 

[dinosnake]

Like mentioned before, try two things:

(1) Put one of the drives on the Primary IDE channel as slave, and the other leave on the Secondary IDE as either master or slave (try both). I might recommend for speed putting the CDROM as the Primary Slave and the CDRW on the Secondary IDE. This way the system can issue concurrent IDE requests during CDR and CDRW writes.

If that doesn't work:

(2) This problem may caused by a driver conflict within Windows. So, turn off BIOS support for one of the ROM drives (try the CDROM first, if still no try the CDRW). In other words go into the BIOS and on the CHS configuration for the drive in question instead of selecting 'CDROM', or other drive type setting, choose 'None' (or similiar). This will cause Windows to detect and support the drive in a different manner than before, clearing the driver conflict. It seems to be caused by the VCDFSD and IFS system trying to simultaneously support 2 quite different drives, but using the same VxD system (VCDFSD and IFS). It has happened before to me. Your mileage may vary...

 

[ceh4702]

maybe it was caused by a conflict in an IRQ or a setting in the driver software. It may have crashed when you tried to use one of the CD's for the first time. This can be caused by using the same memory range/IRQ or something like that. You may be able to go into the device manager and select the device and try reserving a drive letter or adjusting the settings. Also check the BIOS to see if the BIOS has a setting for disabling the irq for the secondary IDE channel. Recheck all of the settings. Sometimes you have to plug the single drive on the secondary channel into the other empty cable port and use cable select instead of master/slave. Which cable is plugged into the drive can have an effect on the result. If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[Guest_imported]

how to determine primary and secondary IDE on PC?

 

[GrandpaCarl]

One added caveat. There are two distinct types of IDE cables: 1) Slave/Master cables where both connectors are identical and it is the jumpering on the drives that determine which is master and which is slave. 2)Cable select cables, where both drives on a given IDE channel are physically set to masters or CS, and the two connectors are DIDDERENT. The connector at the end is the master and the inside connector is the slave. Be sure you have the right cables for your computer.

 

[Guest_imported]

To Hard Disk visitor, do you mean how to determine the interfaces on the motherboard? If so, then assuming no manual is available, minutely check the surface of the motherboard for screen printed legends - they are often marked "1st" and "2nd", or "Primary" and "Secondary" etc. If not, then you'll have to use the "trial and error" method. Attach a known good hard drive to just one IDE interface, leaving the other interface unused. Switch on PC, go into the BIOS and select "Autodetect Drives". Assuming the drive is found ok, the screen will clearly show whether it's attached to the Primary or Secondary interface.


ROGER - GØAOZ.

 

[mainegeek]

I would leave the CD-Rom as primary slave and put the CDR as
secondary master. Make sure the jumpers on the drives are set correctly. If your cdr is jumpered as master on an ide cable that has two connectors make sure it is on the middle one. If you have to use the end one because it doesn't reach then set the jumper cable select (CS)
Verify that your bios has detected all three at boot up.
If it doesn't, set secondary master in bios to AUTO.....AUTO
If it shows all three drives at boot but no cdr in windows, go to device manager and remove the CD-Rom. The CD-Rom might be in the way and it could keep it from assigning the drive letter that it needs. You can also check you config.sys for the LASTDRIVE= line. There probably isn't one there but if there is and it is set as LASTDRIVE=E then
change the E to F or remove the whole LASTDRIVE= line altogether. Anyway, I would keep the CDR on its own channel by itself as a Master. Some burner software won't allow you to copy when the source and destination drives are sharing channels.