adding dvd writer, original cd/dvd combo drive .....

[sk8104s8tan]

hi
I'm trying to add a pioneer dvd/cd writer drive to my presario xp machine
which has already a cd/dvd combo drive but no dvd write, with the new drive
came a software cd that supposedly has the drivers,etc needed for the drive
to work correctly which it does to some degree. now my original drive
doesn't seem to work correctly, for example when I insert a cd/dvd of any
kind, the drive will not be able to read it until I reboot, then it read the
current cd/dvd but when I insert a new cd/dvd, it will display the files
from the previous cd/dvd. the cd/dvd writer came with software such as
Ulead dvd, nero express, and Sai write dvd switch utility which I have tried
the different UDF driver settings to no avail. I have made this work
before but since I did a reformat recently I forgot what I did to make it
work. that is my problem, sorry for the long post, I hope someone out there
can help me refresh my memory. Thanks

 

[Guest]

Adding a second Optical Drive should not affect the functionality of an existing drive.

Check that you have physically cionfigured the drives correctly.

That is: if Optical Drive 1 and Optical Drive 2 are attached to the same IDE interface cable, you make sure that Drive 1 is Jumpered as Master, connected at the end of the cable: Drive 2 is jumpered as Slave, connected to the centre plug of the cable.

BIOS should see all the IDE drives and show them as:
Primary Master - Hard Disk Drive and Model Number
Primary Slave - not present
Secondary Master - Optical Drive and Model Number
Secondary Slave - Optical Drive and Model Number

[or whatever configuration you have used]

If it is not right in BIOS it won't work in Windows.

Generally one will not rquire to provide any 'new' drivers for Windows XP, it has most 'built-in': but of course there are exceptions. SO unless it is absolutely necessary [or if specifically described as part of the installation process by the manufacturer] do not bang in a CD and load up software or drivers. Let Windows do it's thing.

When all the drives are properly recognised, you will need 3rd party software to play DVD movies, but I expect that it is already installed as you have a combo drive already. Again only install software if it is absolutely necessary. You do not require 2 software DVD players: so if the DVD player provided with the new drive is better than the original then uninstall the first before installing the second.