Is the cable to the DVD an 80wire 40 connector cable.
Your older drives should work on 40 wire cables but a new DVD Writer needs 80 wire cables
Your older drives should work on 40 wire cables but a new DVD Writer needs 80 wire cables
Won't recognize new or old DVD R/W
Greetings!
Home computer, Dell 8200 Desktop. It has two hard drives and had two optical drives: a DVD reader, and a CD-R/W. The CD R/W stopped writing, so I bought a new Sony Multiformat DVD-CD-R/W and installed it in place of the CD-R/W. IN the process I exchanged the physical locations of the two devices but I also changed the shunts so the newest one is Master and the old Reader is slave. The new Sony read the software that came with it (Nero included) just fine so it's hooked up right. However, I can not now locate either of these two optical drives on "My Computer", and they did not get Drive letters assigned to them, so there's no way I can access them. My computer is calling them "devices", not "drives". When I go to drive manager, it only shows my A: (5-1/4 floppy); C: (operating drive) and F: (data drive). The old opticals used to be D: and E:.
I unwired both devices, and ran my computer, hoping it would clear some old settings. Then I rewired only the new Sony DVD R/W on the master end of the cables and still get nothing. Now it won't even read from it (although I hear it spinning).
I think the old drivers that went with the original pieces are confusing my computer and may need to be unistalled, but I can't find them (don't know where to look). Either that, or my BIOS needs to be changed because it still thinks the old drive letters belong to the old devices. But I would need help going there.
Thanks
Tony
Home computer, Dell 8200 Desktop. It has two hard drives and had two optical drives: a DVD reader, and a CD-R/W. The CD R/W stopped writing, so I bought a new Sony Multiformat DVD-CD-R/W and installed it in place of the CD-R/W. IN the process I exchanged the physical locations of the two devices but I also changed the shunts so the newest one is Master and the old Reader is slave. The new Sony read the software that came with it (Nero included) just fine so it's hooked up right. However, I can not now locate either of these two optical drives on "My Computer", and they did not get Drive letters assigned to them, so there's no way I can access them. My computer is calling them "devices", not "drives". When I go to drive manager, it only shows my A: (5-1/4 floppy); C: (operating drive) and F: (data drive). The old opticals used to be D: and E:.
I unwired both devices, and ran my computer, hoping it would clear some old settings. Then I rewired only the new Sony DVD R/W on the master end of the cables and still get nothing. Now it won't even read from it (although I hear it spinning).
I think the old drivers that went with the original pieces are confusing my computer and may need to be unistalled, but I can't find them (don't know where to look). Either that, or my BIOS needs to be changed because it still thinks the old drive letters belong to the old devices. But I would need help going there.
Thanks
Tony
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won't recognize DVD-R/W
Kodi,
No, the Sony Multiformat DVD-R/W is definitely 40-pin. But you had me sucking wind for a while there before I could get home and open 'er up to verify.
I really think this is a software BIOS problem, but I know so little about that. And that blue screen freaks me out.
I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the fact that there were two optical drives in there, I removed one, relocated the other one (physically), and then added the new one. Seems like there might be drivers installed, or BIOS recognitions, that aren't being met.
Thank you Kodi!!
TF
Kodi,
No, the Sony Multiformat DVD-R/W is definitely 40-pin. But you had me sucking wind for a while there before I could get home and open 'er up to verify.
I really think this is a software BIOS problem, but I know so little about that. And that blue screen freaks me out.
I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the fact that there were two optical drives in there, I removed one, relocated the other one (physically), and then added the new one. Seems like there might be drivers installed, or BIOS recognitions, that aren't being met.
Thank you Kodi!!
TF
an 80 wire and a 40 wire both have the same plug but the plugs on the 80 wire are different colours
blue/grey/black
use the 80 wire
check the jumpers are set correctly on each drive
uninstall and reinstall your burning software
blue/grey/black
use the 80 wire
check the jumpers are set correctly on each drive
uninstall and reinstall your burning software
Thanks Dai! If you're saying that an 80-wire cable has the same 40-pin configuration as a 40-wire, then I might as well make the upgrade - couldn't hurt (right?).
It may be a weekend project for this dinosaur, but I'll check back next week and let you all know how it went.
TF
It may be a weekend project for this dinosaur, but I'll check back next week and let you all know how it went.
TF
Update
Thanks for all your help with this one. I replaced my IDE cable. The old one was already actually an 80-wire, but being a ribbon cable with a few kinks in it I thought it wouldn't hurt. So I installed an 80-wire round cable (Belkin?).
Then, following an MSN repair recommendation for Error Code 39, I went into the Registry Edit and found my LowerFilter and deleted the value for that. I couldn't find anything called UpperFilter.
And now my computer recognizes my DVD-R/W as a drive and gave it a letter. I am very pleased.
Thanks again.
TF
Thanks for all your help with this one. I replaced my IDE cable. The old one was already actually an 80-wire, but being a ribbon cable with a few kinks in it I thought it wouldn't hurt. So I installed an 80-wire round cable (Belkin?).
Then, following an MSN repair recommendation for Error Code 39, I went into the Registry Edit and found my LowerFilter and deleted the value for that. I couldn't find anything called UpperFilter.
And now my computer recognizes my DVD-R/W as a drive and gave it a letter. I am very pleased.
Thanks again.
TF
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