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General discussion

installing a new cd rewriter

Oct 28, 2004 6:11AM PDT

argggh, i have installed a new cd-rw and i cant get it to work, there is power ggoing into it, i have tried windows xp help and it cant do anything for me, its not listed as one of my drives, only the hard drive, floppy and dvd drive listed, there is no updated hardware for it on the website. I run xp and am totally flumaxed now. Any ideas, please keep the answers basic as i am a flop at these sort of subjects, thanx 4 your help

Discussion is locked

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Re: installing a new cd rewriter
Oct 28, 2004 8:03AM PDT

Have you checked the jumper setting on the drive?
Is the unit installed on the same cable as the dvd drive?
Is the cable a standard 40 pin cable?
Where is the drive installed on the cable, the end or the middle connector?
Check in bios to see how the dvd drive is set. If dvd drive is recognized as secondary master, then it should plug into the end of the cable.
Then set the cdrw drive set to secondary master, and plug in middle connector of cable. If they are not installed as to accept these connections, you may have to reverse the drives or reverse the settings.
One drive set to master and connected to end of cable, the other drive set slave and connected to the middle connector of the cable.
Best of Luck.

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Re: OOPS!
Oct 28, 2004 3:01PM PDT

"Then set the cdrw drive set to secondary master, and plug in middle connector of cable. If they are not installed as to accept these connections, you may have to reverse the drives or reverse the settings."

Sorry, this should read , then set the cdrw drive to secondary slave instead of secondary master.

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Re: installing a new cd rewriter
Oct 31, 2004 9:52PM PST

Hi Ernie, no joy unfortunatley, maybe its me cos i am not a computer person at all, can someone please break it down into real basic english for me, thanks anyway Ernie

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Re: installing a new cd rewriter
Nov 1, 2004 1:41PM PST

Des, have you read the instructions that came with the drive? Particularly about how to set the jumpers. They must be set correctly for the installation to work properly. First you will need to determine what type of cable that you're using. Standard 40 pin, or the newer 80 pin cable.
For the 80 pin cable, set both drives to cable select.
If your computer is an older machine, they are likely the 40 pin cables. For the 40 pin cable, the settings are different.
The drives should be marked on the back. The one that I have in hand is marked cable select, slave, or master. Just move the jumper to the correct pins that correspond with the named setting.
You need to check both of the drives.
How you set the drive is determined by where they are installed in the case.
Looking at the front of your case, the drive on top is usually the master and the other beneath it is normally the slave drive, as this arrangement will line up best with the connectors on the cable.
Again, master drive (on top)with jumper set to master, connected to the end of the cable, slave drive (below) with jumper set to slave, connected to the middle connector on the cable. It's not difficult. Take your time and you can get there.
Best of Luck.