CD Drive doesn't work

**roadhog0** · 10-11-08, 09:05 PM

Also my 2 cents worth, I have put together a computer that had an IDE cable that went both ways, try flipping them over if possible.

**Kanati** · 10-12-08, 02:06 AM

I actually have this same issue on my alienware laptop. I have two dvd drives in it and neither one registers, even in bios. MOST of the time that is. Took forever rebooting it before it found one long enough to reinstall windows.

**TheBenDude37** · 10-12-08, 02:10 AM

Here is a good fix take it back and tell them to fix it for free.Since it worked before you took it there they must have did something wrong.

**RhysJD3** · 10-12-08, 11:53 AM

There are three connectors on the cable. It should only be hooked up as follows:

end connector to motherboard (usually this one is furthest from the other two)
middle connector to the slave drive
tip connector to the master drive

If you put the master drive in the middle connector, you could cause problems. Putting a drive into cable select should allow it to figure out which connector it's on. I've had issues with this and normally don't use cable select. However, I did have two drives which would only work when the maxtor was master and the western digital was slave with the maxtor set to cable select and the western digital set to slave. No other configuration would be recognized for both drives by the bios. Weird.

Acceptable configurations in my order of preference (you may also want to flip which drive you are using for master/slave since this could make a difference)

Configuration A
Cable jumper
Master End Set jumper to Master
Middle Set jumper to Slave

Configuration B
Cable jumper
Master End Set jumper to Cable Select
Middle Set jumper to Cable Select

Configuration C
Cable jumper
Master End Set jumper to Cable Select
Middle Set jumper to Slave

Configuration D
Cable jumper
Master End Set jumper to Master
Middle Set jumper to Cable Select