Drives have what pin is what somewhere on the drive, usually on the top, either stamped in the top where the pins are or on a piece of paper glued to the top.
Not all drives are the same, so the first slot may not be cable select. On the drive it can be marked CS or CSEL.
With cable select, the PC's controller sets what drive is what, and the drive on the end is considered Drive "0".
But, as I noted not all PC's are set this way, however every one I've seen in the last 9 or possibly 10 years has used this system.
Unfortunately, this particular CD_ROM drive does not have the pin configuration printed anywhere on it, unlike any other drive i have seen in the past ten years or so. It is not printed real small or stamped in an unusual place, it is not printed on the drive at all. Nor can I find this drive's pin configuration on any of the technical sites where one can usually locate such things.
I do have a good understanding of IDE/EIDE, and have worked in the industry for a long time, but this problem is unlike anything I have encountered before. I believe I've tried every combination of settings pin setting possible, so I think I am missing something else. There must be something particular to this Dell computer or this particular CD ROM drive that I am missing. I also cannot account for why this configuration worked before and does not now. It's also sort of odd that the BIOs doesn't recognize it, but my Windows OS has no problems addressing the drive.
Unfortunately, this motherboard -- and mind you this was not a cheap Dell system at the time -- only has one IDE controller, and I can't add a SATA CD because -- LOL -- the system only supports two SATA drives.
fireberd
9 Legend
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33.4K Posts
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February 7th, 2011 07:00
Most Dell's use "cable select" rather than Master/Slave. Set both to Cable Select and see if it will work. Apparently it's not being seen by the BIOS.
Mike Batard
3 Posts
0
February 7th, 2011 08:00
FireBerd:
Thank you for your response.
I do not have a diagram for this particular CD_ROM drive, but I am assuming that pin 1 is CS, pin 2 is Slave, and pin 3 is Master.
I tried the following scenarios with the CD-ROm drive on pin 1:
- Placed the hard drive on CS, and the BIOS did not see either drive.
- Placed the hard drive on Master, and the BIOS did not see either drive.
- Placed the hard drive on Master with Slave Present, and the BIOS did not see either drive.
The system will boot up with the CD ROM drive set on pin 2 (which I assume is slave), and works fine in Windows.
But the BIOS does not see it and I cannot boot from it.
What should be my next step?
Thanks again.
fireberd
9 Legend
•
33.4K Posts
0
February 7th, 2011 10:00
Drives have what pin is what somewhere on the drive, usually on the top, either stamped in the top where the pins are or on a piece of paper glued to the top.
Not all drives are the same, so the first slot may not be cable select. On the drive it can be marked CS or CSEL.
With cable select, the PC's controller sets what drive is what, and the drive on the end is considered Drive "0".
But, as I noted not all PC's are set this way, however every one I've seen in the last 9 or possibly 10 years has used this system.
Mike Batard
3 Posts
0
February 7th, 2011 11:00
Hi again,
Unfortunately, this particular CD_ROM drive does not have the pin configuration printed anywhere on it, unlike any other drive i have seen in the past ten years or so. It is not printed real small or stamped in an unusual place, it is not printed on the drive at all. Nor can I find this drive's pin configuration on any of the technical sites where one can usually locate such things.
I do have a good understanding of IDE/EIDE, and have worked in the industry for a long time, but this problem is unlike anything I have encountered before. I believe I've tried every combination of settings pin setting possible, so I think I am missing something else. There must be something particular to this Dell computer or this particular CD ROM drive that I am missing. I also cannot account for why this configuration worked before and does not now. It's also sort of odd that the BIOs doesn't recognize it, but my Windows OS has no problems addressing the drive.
Unfortunately, this motherboard -- and mind you this was not a cheap Dell system at the time -- only has one IDE controller, and I can't add a SATA CD because -- LOL -- the system only supports two SATA drives.