Huge

It was all going so well...ordered Plextor CD-RW on Sunday...delivered yesterday (Watford Electronics - top customer service!!)...and.....

...now I can't fit the effing thing!!

It's an internal unit but on opening up my PC tower there doesn't appear to be a connector available to the motherboard. Two free 5.25" slots with power cables but nothing else

So - do I need to do something like have a new motherboard fitted??

The PC is a 1999 vintage Gateway with a Pentium 3 500mhz processor 64k RAM & a 4.8Gb hard disk.

All assistance gratefully received!!

Hugh

(Definitely feeling that I should stick to Finance & leave things IT well alone )

Steve Perriam

hi m8

have you been able to locate the primary ide controller ? its located on the motherboard and is where the ide cable from your Hard Disc should be plugged into already ?

if so is there also a secondary ide controller right next to it ? same shape etc.........

if so you can plug the new Plextor into the secondary ide controller using the cables that should have been supplied with the plextor unit.

apart from a hard disc do you also already have a cd rom drive inside your pc ?

can you get a friend to help you install it ?

steve

Neil Smalley

If both 40 pin connectors are used, the cable running up from them should have another connector in already. Use that one.

You will then probably have to swap the little plastic 'jumper' to be a 'slave' device.

http://www.a1-electronics.co.uk/PcHa...arddrive.shtml

If you need any help, just ask

BuRR

Unless its a SCSI drive?

Huge

Steve / Neil,

Thanks for the responses.

I'm afraid that I'm really not sure what's plugged in where & what a primary unit etc looks like!!

However, I'll delve into the unit again tonight & see if I can make sense once the things actually in front of me.

Will also need to buy the other half a bunch of flowers as I was in such a grump last night!!

Hugh

Steve Perriam

lol

in that case m8 i think you need the services of a friend who knows how to fiddle around inside a pc.

that site neil mentions is not bad....might be of use ?

also if you have your motherboard manual it should have a nice piccy of the motherboard and allow you to identify the IDE controllers i was waffling about

dsmith

Huge

Almost all drives (Hard Disks, CDs, CDRWs etc) are "IDE" devices. PCs have 2 IDE channels ("Primary" & Secondary"). Each Channel can support a "Master" and "Slave" device, So 4 devices in Total.

The Motherboard will have two 40 pin connectors on (2 rows of 20 pins stiucking up). The cable is a ribbon cable about 2 inches across. If you already have a CD then probably the primary channel will be connected to your hard disk (The Primary Master Device) and the second channel will (should) connect to your current CD. (the Secondary Master). At least one of the Cables should have a third connector on which is unused currently. (or replace the CD cable with one that came with your drive.) whih will be used for the new CDRW.

In the manual for the new CDRW look for instructions on how to move the little plastic connector or "Jumper" at the back to make it "Slave". The Wide IDE cable can now be plugged in. It should fit only one way due to a little key and matching cutout. If it will go both ways then The IDE cable should have one side highlighted in red - this is pin 1 and should go on the side closest to the power connector.

This should leave you with

Primary Master : Hard Disk
Primary Slave : Unused

Secondary Master : Original CD
Secondary Slave : New CDRW

The Motherboard and WIndows should auto recognise it when you power up.

Deano