Best way to configure 2 Optical Drives & 1 HDD

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fel8me

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Aug 30, 2001
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Guys I have an Asus A7N8X mobo, a DVD-ROM, a burner and a Hard Disk setup. Theres only 2 IDE channels, so I put the HDD dedicated on its own, and split the other IDE channel between the burner (as master on the end of th cable) and the DVD (as slave on the middle connector).

This sounded like a decent setup, as I don't do much direct CD copies and the burner works fine. However the DVD is running in PIO mode as a brisk 1.5x (its a 16x model), and I need the speed.

I didn't mess with the jumper settings (factory default) but I would probably guess they are on auto detect. I haven't found any BIOS options for manually setting DMA/PIO/whatever and I cannot apply them in windows XP |System.

Anyone know the best way to config them? I didn't think that setting one device to slave would automatically bump it down to PIO mode.
 
You have them right. The HDD should be alone on the primary, and the optical drives on the secondary. That "idea" that you can't do direct CD copies on the same channel has always been bullshit. I used to do it with my 1x Mitsumi CD-R. If your drives are running in PIO Mode, you need to check your controller settings in device manager, and also make sure you have the chipset drivers loaded.

Also, NEVER use Cable Select. That's for old drives, and for the extremely lazy. Set the one on the far end of the cable to master, and the middle one to slave.
 
Also, switch the optical drives and see what happens. I have my burner as a slave with no problems.
 
Originally posted by djnes
Also, NEVER use Cable Select. That's for old drives, and for the extremely lazy. Set the one on the far end of the cable to master, and the middle one to slave.
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Thats kinda funny coming from you. Every Compaq/HP machine I've ever worked on uses cable select.:p

And it doesn't really matter if its CS or M/S - its just an ID string so that they can be identified. It has no bearing on performance.
 
Just a note, the setting for DMA/PIO mode isn't on the optical drive itself (in device manager), it's on the IDE controller.

If you installed the SW IDE drivers, it'll just be the nVidia IDE controller; if you're using 'normal' drivers, it'll be the Secondary IDE controller. Open the appropriate Device Manager entry up, and hit the Advanced tab—options will be in there.
 
Originally posted by Stiletto One
Just a note, the setting for DMA/PIO mode isn't on the optical drive itself (in device manager), it's on the IDE controller.

If you installed the SW IDE drivers, it'll just be the nVidia IDE controller; if you're using 'normal' drivers, it'll be the Secondary IDE controller. Open the appropriate Device Manager entry up, and hit the Advanced tab—options will be in there.
Click to expand...

Yes that's right, the information on PIO/DMA was in the secondary IDE controller tab. They are both set to DMA if Available, but the DVD is only showing PIO and I can't set it from there.

I can still do direct CD copies, it takes about 30% longer than my old system (i.e. 1.5 minutes more than my old mobo) if I am not doing too much else (like the freaky DV editing, DivXing that I got into recently). But slow DVD ROM speed is murder when you are getting stuff off DVD-Rs. I will try manually setting the jumper settings, and sourcing the NV mobo drivers.
 
Originally posted by Party2go9820
Thats kinda funny coming from you. Every Compaq/HP machine I've ever worked on uses cable select.:p
Click to expand...

If I had any kind of say or dealing with our consumer line, I would require everything be set correctly. I've also seen quite a few articles over the years complaining about Cable Select and it's problems. Once it is working, no it shouldn't affect performance, but it can alter boot times, etc. That's the same principle as when most tweak guides tell you to hard code your HDD info in the BIOS instead of setting it to Auto.
 
On a side note, I've had a 200GB drive that would only work when set to Cable Select. Weird? Yes. But true. I still don't know why, but it was the case.
 
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