New DVD-Writer Problem

[RhysAndrews]

Hi everyone.
This is a bit like a sequel to my original problem of my old DVD-Writer locking up (http://www.computerforums.org/showthread.php?t=46614). Seeing as I was almost certain my DVD-Writer was the cause of my computer locking up, I bought myself a new writer today. It's almost exactly the same model (well, the only difference is I got the black one this time, and it has a different button shape). The DVD-writer is an LG GSA-H22N.

Well, I'm positive I plugged it in correctly... IDE Wire-Belt goes from Mo-Board to my Hard-Drive, to the DVD-Writer... then we have a p*ss-weak audio-cable from my sound-card to the DVD-Writer (those cables are so weak looking), and the power cable from DVD-writer to power supply. Problem is, when I start up the computer now, it takes 5-8 seconds waiting on "Detecting IDE Drives", then just before it usually boots XP, it has the error "Drive Boot Failure - Check System Disk and Try Again" or something alike.

The first apparent solution was to play around with jumpers... I didn't know what they were but I was informed by an apparent computer pro; my new DVD-Writer doesn't have a jumper, but the old one did, so I took the jumper off the old one and put it on the new one... same problem, except the tray ejected when it was detecting the IDE Drives... which is a bit weird I guess... weirder when it wouldn't go back in without me pushing it back in (and I had to push it all the way in). Then when taking out the jumper, I lost it; plan failed.

I then spoke to my other mate, who said it could be because the DVD-Writer is master as well as the hard-drive (or they're both slave); and that could cause problems... To fix it, I had to physically move some pin; breaking it would screw my writer completely. So I don't want to do this until I know it's the right thing to do (and i'd get a pro to do it). But yeah, seeing as both the HDD and DVD Writer are on the same IDE Belt, this could be the problem. When I take power out of the DVD-Burner (but leave the ide belt and audio cable in), I can go into XP fine, but obviously without the writer having functionality.

If I could have some advice on what to do, that would be great; thankyou.
-Rhys

 

[RhysAndrews]

Update:
Sort of got it working. I realised that my new writer does indeed have a jumper included (it was set to master), however... I didn't notice it because it was camouflaged. I'm now worried that because I had 2 jumpers on it at once, it could've short-circuited the rom (which could've explained the unexpected ejection of the tray). I realised that both the hard-drive and CD Rom were set to master, and it worked like this:

Motherboard ----- Hard-Drive (Set to Master, plugged into the SLAVE plug of IDE-belt) ---- DVD Writer (Set to master, plugged into the MASTER plug of IDE-belt).

so, I first set my DVD Writer to "Cable Select"... and because it was already in the master plug of the IDE-belt, I got the same error because it went back to Master anyway. So I simply set the hard-drive to "Cable Select" as well, so it defaulted back to Slave. So my computer runs now along with my cd-drive... But, now I have another problem.

Upon putting in a CD, my computer turned off without warning. This could be because of the short-circuit; however, this is the error found in the system log:

DCOM got error "The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it. " attempting to start the service MDM with arguments "" in order to run the server:
{0C0A3666-30C9-11D0-8F20-00805F2CD064}

That error is logged both when the computer crashed, and when I turned it back on again. I'm now doing research on this error, any help would be much appreciated. Besides the short-circuit, this could be an error with something such as a cable, part of the motherboard, or some other part that is also responsible for the locking up on my old writer. But... another issue is raised, because this Error is all over my system log... it's scattered all over the log. About 20 times a day this error occurs.. a rough average.

Regards
Rhys Andrews

 

[Raffaz]

Ok im assuming you are running the HDD and DVD off the same cable. So unplug them both and set the HDD to master and the DVD to slave. Then connect the cable, notice how there is a red band down 1 side? This needs to goto pin 1 on the mobo and the 2 drives. There will be a marker on the mobo and drives to tell ya were pin 1 is, its normally a number 1 or a little triangle. Connect them up etc, and try that. Dont use the cable select options on the jumpers, i dont find them as reliable as master/slave config.

 

[RhysAndrews]

Thanks... I'm using Ultra-ATA Cables... so they don't exactly have a red band on them; the connectors are colour-coded: Blue to Mobo, Grey to Slave, Black to Master. I physically cannot bend the wire belt for Master to go to HDD and Slave to DVD Drive... Apparently CS doesn't work with Ultra-ATA anyway (and when I had them both on CS, my computer turned off when a CD started up), and when I set Slave to HDD and Master to CD-Writer... It locked up while it was loading Windows (with the loading bar, yah?). I've just tried having 2 separate IDE Cables... Windows doesn't detect the master for the secondary channel; anything I should be fixing in BIOS for that?

-Rhys

 

[Raffaz]

All cables have the red marking running the full length of the cable, it will be fine but it should be there. Try setting your HDD to master on the primary IDE channel (primary is the blue connector on the mobo). And ya DVD as a master on the secondary. CS does work with ultra ATA, it just isnt very good. Thats why your better off using master / slave

 

[RhysAndrews]

I do not have a blue IDE-connector. The primary (it's labeled IDE1) channel is black, and the 2 secondarys are green. I can assure you there are no red markings down the cable, they are Gigabyte Cables with 3 connectors; red (for the mobo), then light grey (for the slave), then black (for the master). My devices run in this order (physically, from bottom to top): Mobo, HDD, DVD-Drive... so the cable runs up from the bottom, and it cannot possibly work having the BLACK connector (master) only go up to the HDD, and yet have the LIGHT GREY connector (slave) go all the way up to the Drive... it's not physically possible.

I tried having 2 belts, my computer worked fine but did not detect the CD Drive... I went into my BIOS: It has a list of each channel, and their master and slave; and the device connected... IDE Channel 0 Master had the hard-drive, Everything else (including IDE Channel 2 Master - which should've had the CD-drive there) was "none"; I tried scanning for new devices, with no luck.

-Rhys

 

[Raffaz]

So basically your saying that the cables you have dont give you the option of using master / slave instead of cable select? that sucks lol. Well i dont know what else to suggest, coz you seem to have tried it all. And it should be working. All ya can do is play round with the jumpers on ya DVD and see if it will show in the BIOS. And maybe try some standard cables (if you have them lying round) and connecting them the way i suggested. Someone else might be to suggest something for the gigabyte boards, but ive never used them before

 

[Raffaz]

Just another quick point, does the IDE cable have any other marking to distinguish one side from the other?

 

[RhysAndrews]

Just another quick point, does the IDE cable have any other marking to distinguish one side from the other?

No; but they can only plug in one way, can't they?

-Rhys

 

[Raffaz]

No; but they can only plug in one way, can't they?

-Rhys

Not neccessarily, some drives and cables arent keyed so they will go either way