BleepingComputer.com: Problem with Sony DVD/CD Internal Drive

I am helping a friend who is installing a Sony DVD/CD drive on his Dell computer. I am teaching at school and do not have the specirfic model number for either the Dell or the Sony.

Installed the Sony drive as a Master on the secondary IDE channel and the Maxtor Hard Drive is on the primary IDE channel as Master.

Went into BIOS and it sees both drives and shows both as listed above.

When I restart and come into the desktop, one time I had "found new hardware and installing" but it just sat there and never did install. It also never showed that it had not. It just disappeared.

I went into control pannel and it does not recognize the Sony DVD drive. In Device Manager it shows that it recognizes the drivers for the Sony but not the hardware. It has a yellow apostrophe in front of the Sony DVD.

I have tried forcing a hardware install but it won't recognize the DVD hardware.

I checked the jumpers on the Sony to make sure it was set for Master.

Please let me know what I have missed. I have tried everything that I know.

Could it be that the secondary IDE controller is faulty?

Thanks for any and all suggestions.

Steve Bell

Im a slight bit confused here, are you running both of them through the same IDE ribbon (each IDE channel can support 2 devices) or do you have them on 2 seperate ribbons? if its the former, I would have the master drive hooked up to the first, or primary connection on the IDE ribbon, and the slave hooked up to the second one. If the latter, I would hook them both up to the same IDE ribbon.

Thanks for your response. I'm sorry if I wasn't clear. The Sony DVD is connected as a Master on the second IDE controller. The hard drive is on the first IDE controller also as a master.

I thought of trying to connect both on the same ribbon cable but there is not enough room on the cable between the connector for the hard drive and the DVD. Maybe I can find a ribbon cable that has more room between the hard drive and the DVD. I understand that I would make the DVD (Sony) a slave. Is it possible that the second IDE controller could be bad. I haven't tried buying and replacing the ribbon connector.

I will keep you posted on what I find out.

Thanks in advance for your comments.

Disconnect...reconnect...reboot.

The drivers for the any CD/DVD drive are generically supplied by XP.

If the jumper setting is correct (either CS or Master), the drive should be recognized in My Computer/Explorer.

Yellow markings in Device Manager generally indicate a lack of drivers, IME...but take a read at http://pcsupport.about.com/od/tipstricks/f/yellowdm.htm

I am assuming that any previous DVD/CD drive...has been removed from the BIOS and from Device Manager.

Louis

Louis,

I've tried just about everything with this computer. This afternoon I brought a new ribbon cable and went directly from the DVD to the 2nd IDE controller. I set it as a master. The computer did exactly the same thing. Found in BIOS but not in my computer. In Device Manager it still shows the yellow apostrophe Drivers found but hardware not found.

I called Best Buy and the Geek Squad told me that I could run the DVD off the primary IDE as a Slave (Hard Drive as the Master!) I didn't have quite long enough ribbon cable to do that.

Thought I would try connecting the hard drive directly to the second IDE Controller and the DVD to the Primary IDE Controller (where the hard drive was connected to!) Didn't work. It went in to Windows XP fine but did not find the DVD at all. Both the hard drive and the DVD were both set to master.

I will have a longer ribbon cable at the house after school tomorrow (I teach CAD at the local high school!) Going to try again to make the DVD a slave on the primary IDE controller.

I am just about out of ideas.

Anyone with some suggestions would sure be appreciated.

you can actually, not always Ideal, but hook the DVD drive to the first connector on the IDE ribbon, and the Hard drive to the second one, setting the hard drive as the master and the DVD drive as the slave. it should in theory work that way, though Ive had issues with it in the past which is part of why I dont normally recomend doing it that way, but in theory, it should work.

Thanks for replying. Ran them both as masters as they were on different IDE controllers. Will try running it with the DVD as a slave. Might work. As I said when I ran them both as masters hooking the hard drive up to the second IDE and the DVD to the first, the DVD was not even recognized in Device Manager. Up until now it was recognized with a yellow apostrophe.

Thanks again.

In the past, putting an optical drive and a hard drive on the same cable...was problematical.

But, with the advent of motherboards that only have 1 IDE connector...both devices can operate with no problems on the same cable. This system that I am currently on...has such a motherboard and so does my other desktop.

The idea of putting the hard drive as anything other than the Master (or Cable Select) and on the end connector...repels me. But, with a board with only a single IDE connector...it really should not matter (in theory). I connect my optical on the middle connectors of my systems.

Personally, I would conclude that the Sony drive is dysfunctional and move on to another drive. If no drive works properly, then it would be a problem.

Louis

Could sure use some more ideas. I've tried different drives and changed things around.

Any other ideas?? Thanks