Everything slows when using CD drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Paul
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Paul

Hi,

I recently bought a new hard drive which i installed as primary slave to my
first drive (primary master).
I also have a CD writer and a DVD writer on the secondary ide channel. the
CD writer is primary, DVD writer as secondary.

Before buying the new hard drive i never had a problem but i've now found
that copying file from/installing from/burning with the CD writer causes
big slowdowns of my PC.

When the file copying is complete or a burn is complete the system returns
to normal.

Its like the CD writer is hogging everything. I dont get this problem when
copying from the DVD writer only the CD.


Have I setup the jumpers wrong? My new hard drive is not displayed in the
BIOS with all the other drives but it is recognised by Windows XP and works
fine.

If I experimented with the jumper settings would this damage any of the data
already on the drive? Would I still be able to access the files as normal
if I changed the jumpers around? In other words, is it risk free?


Cheers,
Paul
 
Paul said:
Hi,

I recently bought a new hard drive which i installed as primary slave
to my first drive (primary master).
I also have a CD writer and a DVD writer on the secondary ide
channel. the CD writer is primary, DVD writer as secondary.

Before buying the new hard drive i never had a problem but i've now
found that copying file from/installing from/burning with the CD
writer causes big slowdowns of my PC.

When the file copying is complete or a burn is complete the system
returns to normal.

Its like the CD writer is hogging everything. I dont get this
problem when copying from the DVD writer only the CD.


Have I setup the jumpers wrong? My new hard drive is not displayed
in the BIOS with all the other drives but it is recognised by Windows
XP and works fine.

If I experimented with the jumper settings would this damage any of
the data already on the drive? Would I still be able to access the
files as normal if I changed the jumpers around? In other words, is
it risk free?
Click to expand...

The boot drive needs to be primary master. Maybe the new drive isn't set as
slave and isn't on the middle connector of the IDE ribbon? Also, you don't
say what version of Windows you are using. See my last post above in the
thread titled "DMA" and check that the CD writer is set to DMA mode, not
PIO. It could have changed when you put the new drive in. Windows does some
strange stuff like that sometimes.
 
The new drive is not intented to be the boot drive. Its just meant to store
files on.
My old drive will remain the boot drive.

I checked the DMA settings and the CD writer is indeed set to PIO. Settings
it to DMA if available doesn't seem to work as it just says PIO again next
time i turn on the computer.

Does it really matter which connector on the ribbon is attached to the hard
drives? I thought jumper settings were all that mattered?



Paul
 
Forgot to mention, running Windows XP.


Paul said:
The new drive is not intented to be the boot drive. Its just meant to store
files on.
My old drive will remain the boot drive.

I checked the DMA settings and the CD writer is indeed set to PIO. Settings
it to DMA if available doesn't seem to work as it just says PIO again next
time i turn on the computer.

Does it really matter which connector on the ribbon is attached to the hard
drives? I thought jumper settings were all that mattered?



Paul
Click to expand...
 
Paul said:
The new drive is not intented to be the boot drive. Its just meant to
store files on.
My old drive will remain the boot drive.
Click to expand...

Got that.
I checked the DMA settings and the CD writer is indeed set to PIO.
Settings it to DMA if available doesn't seem to work as it just says
PIO again next time i turn on the computer.
Click to expand...

That's strange, all (recent) CDRWs I've used will run at UDMA mode 2 at
least.
Does it really matter which connector on the ribbon is attached to
the hard drives? I thought jumper settings were all that mattered?
Click to expand...

It *can* matter. If things aren't working as they should then it pays to go
by the book to see if it will fix it. One thing, On your boot drive, is
there a setting for 'master' and a different setting for 'single drive'? I
know some Western Digital drives are like that, it could be set for
'single'.

From what I can tell from your original post you haven't changed anything
but the primary IDE right? It's strange that the CD drive is now
misbehaving, and strange that it will only run PIO mode. Is there a setting
in BIOS? How old is your system (details please, mobo make, model, revision,
BIOS, CPU, IDE ATA speed at least). Some older systems won't 'see' drives
above a certain size but XP will see them when it loads. Also with some
'older' systems the disk access type (PIO, DMA) can be set in BIOS and may
over-ride XPs settings. (ie. DMA not available due to BIOS settings).

Check the jumper on your boot drive. See if it has different positions for
'master' and 'single', or 'master with slave present'.
 
Its all OK now and working nicely again.
I checked the jumper settings for all drives and they where correct but I
had the IDE channels mixed up. The new drive (slave) was on the first IDE
channel and the old drive (master) was on secondary. Changed that and also a
couple of bios settings (changed to auto from manual) and its all ok. DMA
for every drive.

Thanks for the help and tips
Paul
 
Paul said:
Its all OK now and working nicely again.
I checked the jumper settings for all drives and they where correct
but I had the IDE channels mixed up. The new drive (slave) was on the
first IDE channel and the old drive (master) was on secondary.
Changed that and also a couple of bios settings (changed to auto from
manual) and its all ok. DMA for every drive.

Thanks for the help and tips
Paul
Click to expand...

Cool, glad you got it sorted.

Cheers,
 
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