Distance problem with connectors on round IDE cables...

[Timothy Daniels]

...As a late update, i've bought a
24" ide cable set and when received, i'll try to manage
to fit them the best i can following the suggestions given here.
After consideration and further reading, i've realized that 36"
seems to really push the limits too far.
Will keep in touch. Thanks again.

--
Alain(alias:Kilowatt)
Montréal Québec
PS: 1000 excuses for grammatical errors or
omissions, i'm a "pure" french canadian!

Are those "round" cables or ribbon cables?
Just for experimental reasons, try using the
middle connector for the controller and see
if that works well for you - it may solve the
distance-to-one-of-the-devices problem.

BTW, it is thoroughly French to apologize for
one's English. But since most born English
speakers mangle their native tongue anyway,
apologies aren't necessary.

*TimDaniels*
[Please forgive me for my English - I was born
that way.]

 

[KILOWATT]

Are those "round" cables or ribbon cables?
Round

Just for experimental reasons, try using the
middle connector for the controller and see
if that works well for you - it may solve the
distance-to-one-of-the-devices problem.

Will try for shure.

BTW, it is thoroughly French to apologize for
one's English. But since most born English
speakers mangle their native tongue anyway,
apologies aren't necessary.

Signature modified:

--
Alain(alias:Kilowatt)
Montréal Québec
(If replying also by e-mail, remove
"no spam" from the adress.)

 

[KILOWATT]

As a late update for those who read old threads:

Thimoty Daniels wrote:

2) Use a 24" cable or a 36" cable with the *middle* connector
plugged into the motherboard and the 2 outer connectors
plugged into the ATA/ATAPI devices. This can only be
done with the devices explicitly jumpered as Master and
Slave - not using Cable Select.



With the drives correctly set for master and slave (instead of cable
select), i've tried 24" round cables with this arrangement but the BIOS
takes almost a minute to recognize the drives and another 20 seconds for
Windows to boot. I thought that the round cables were faulty so i've tried
the same cable arrangement with the previous flat cable and the drives
detection process took as long. I've then moved temporarily the hard disk
close to the optical drive so i could reconnect the round cable but that
time with the usual way of connecting drives (system connector with the
motherboard, slave connector with the slave drive, master connector with the
master drive). Detection time was <2 seconds and Windows loaded right after
the post screen (ASUS logo). I think that the simili "Y" arrangement done by
connecting the slave connector to the motherboard does some kind of signal
reflection problems...not shure. Maybe that trick works with some systems,
but not mine.

Too bad because it would have solved my IDE cable management problem. What i
did as a workaround is to connect the two optical drives together (one
master, one slave) on the secondary IDE channel since they're close together
in the two upper 5½ drive bays, and the hard disk alone as master on the
primary IDE channel. The reason why i did not choosen this arrangement right
from the beginning is because my CD writing software is giving me buffer
underrun if i try to copy a CD from one drive to the other....even at slow
writing speeds. The IDE channel is simply too busy. What i do now is to copy
the source CD to the hard disk 1st before burning with the other drive. It
takes longer but that works! I don't reject the other suggestion that is to
buy a controller card to get more IDE ports. Fortunately the newer
serial-ata interface solves all those little problems wich will be the case
for my new machine i plan to build. Thanks to all for the suggestions of the
precedent weeks.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

As a late update for those who read old threads:

Thimoty Daniels wrote:

2) Use a 24" cable or a 36" cable with the *middle* connector
plugged into the motherboard and the 2 outer connectors
plugged into the ATA/ATAPI devices. This can only be
done with the devices explicitly jumpered as Master and
Slave - not using Cable Select.



With the drives correctly set for master and slave (instead of cable
select), i've tried 24" round cables with this arrangement but the BIOS
takes almost a minute to recognize the drives and another 20 seconds for
Windows to boot. I thought that the round cables were faulty so i've tried
the same cable arrangement with the previous flat cable and the drives
detection process took as long. I've then moved temporarily the hard disk
close to the optical drive so i could reconnect the round cable but that
time with the usual way of connecting drives (system connector with the
motherboard, slave connector with the slave drive, master connector with
the master drive). Detection time was <2 seconds and Windows loaded
right after the post screen (ASUS logo). I think that the simili "Y" arrange-
ment done by connecting the slave connector to the motherboard does
some kind of signal reflection problems...not shure. Maybe that trick
works with some systems, but not mine.

Thanks for the feedback. Those "sometimes it works" solutions
are maddening.

*TimDaniels*