XP stops recognizing DVD drive after reboot

[Sam Spade]

About 2 months ago, I bought a Plextor PX-760A DVD-RW to replace an older
Plextor CD-RW.

I had zero problems with the device at first. It is the master on the
secondary channel, and it had an old Maxtor hard drive as the slave on the same
channel.

More recently, I replaced the Maxtor with a Seagate. It's jumpered correctly,
don't ask. System BIOS picks up all immediately, and identifies their
positions correctly. (HDD as master on primary, HDD as slave on primary,
Plextor as master on secondary, HDD as slave on secondary)

At first, after putting in the new Seagate, no problems. But suddenly, on any
and every reboot, two things happen (XP Pro, all updated):

1) the Plextor is not recognized by Windows

2) the hard drive light, while blinking normally during system load, hangs
continuously lit when the system is finished loading

The workaround fixes both: Device manager, scan for new hardware. Immediately
the Plextor is picked up by Windows, and immediately the drive light goes off
(back to normal operation where it only lights when there is activity).

But ... I shouldn't need to do this, obviously. Windows should recognize the
Plextor without a scan (it once did), and the drive light should not be
constantly on until I do the hardware scan.

I've been to Google hell and back on this. I can't get any satisfaction,
although I've tried a *lot* of things.

Anyone have a silver bullet for this?

 

[Rock]

About 2 months ago, I bought a Plextor PX-760A DVD-RW to replace an older
Plextor CD-RW.

I had zero problems with the device at first. It is the master on the
secondary channel, and it had an old Maxtor hard drive as the slave on the
same
channel.

More recently, I replaced the Maxtor with a Seagate. It's jumpered
correctly,
don't ask. System BIOS picks up all immediately, and identifies
their
positions correctly. (HDD as master on primary, HDD as slave on primary,
Plextor as master on secondary, HDD as slave on secondary)

At first, after putting in the new Seagate, no problems. But suddenly, on
any
and every reboot, two things happen (XP Pro, all updated):

1) the Plextor is not recognized by Windows

2) the hard drive light, while blinking normally during system load, hangs
continuously lit when the system is finished loading

The workaround fixes both: Device manager, scan for new hardware.
Immediately
the Plextor is picked up by Windows, and immediately the drive light goes
off
(back to normal operation where it only lights when there is activity).

But ... I shouldn't need to do this, obviously. Windows should recognize
the
Plextor without a scan (it once did), and the drive light should not be
constantly on until I do the hardware scan.

I've been to Google hell and back on this. I can't get any satisfaction,
although I've tried a *lot* of things.

Anyone have a silver bullet for this?

Have you tried switching the Seagate drive and the DVD drive as
Master/slave?

 

[Sam Spade]

Have you tried switching the Seagate drive and the DVD drive as
Master/slave?

No, I haven't. And the reason I haven't is that the previous Plextor worked
fine as master with a slave hard disk. But since Seagate (the new slave) is
not Maxtor (the old slave), and since the new Plextor is a DVD-RW and not a
CD-RW, perhaps that would be the thing to try next.

However, if it doesn't get detected on boot, why does it always get detected
immediately with a scan? Not only does it get detected, but it works, and all
the programs that use it recognize it and have access to it. It would seem to
me that it would either work, or not work, in the present configuration. But
then, I'm no expert.

 

[Jonny]

No, I haven't. And the reason I haven't is that the previous Plextor
worked
fine as master with a slave hard disk. But since Seagate (the new slave)
is
not Maxtor (the old slave), and since the new Plextor is a DVD-RW and not
a
CD-RW, perhaps that would be the thing to try next.

However, if it doesn't get detected on boot, why does it always get
detected
immediately with a scan? Not only does it get detected, but it works, and
all
the programs that use it recognize it and have access to it. It would
seem to
me that it would either work, or not work, in the present configuration.
But
then, I'm no expert.

Would suspect the secondary ide controller driver in XP, if the bios
detection has remained detecting all ide devices. Else, the ide ribbon
cable. Swapping the Seagate with the DVD may work too. Have seen stranger
things. You may have to remove and reinstall your DVD burning software
after fixing this. I would remove the burning software from the equation by
removing, and assuring removal by gleening the registry first. Then
troubleshoot.

 

[Sam Spade]

No, I haven't. And the reason I haven't is that the previous Plextor worked
fine as master with a slave hard disk. But since Seagate (the new slave) is
not Maxtor (the old slave), and since the new Plextor is a DVD-RW and not a
CD-RW, perhaps that would be the thing to try next.

However, if it doesn't get detected on boot, why does it always get detected
immediately with a scan? Not only does it get detected, but it works, and all
the programs that use it recognize it and have access to it. It would seem to
me that it would either work, or not work, in the present configuration. But
then, I'm no expert.

Well ... replying to myself and you ...

You were right. I don't know how I would have guessed other than process of
elimination, but there you go. I jumpered the Plextor as slave and the Seagate
as master, and suddenly I don't have any detection or hard drive light
problems. I guess I will forever wonder whether it was the Seagate that
demanded to be master, or the new Plextor which wouldn't be anything other than
a slave. Documentation for both doesn't provide a clue -- only that you have
to jumper them correctly, of course.

Problem apparently solved. Thread closed. I'd like to know why it all worked
after the scan but not on boot, however. But I'll take it as it goes.

Thanks

 

[Rock]

Well ... replying to myself and you ...

You were right. I don't know how I would have guessed other than process
of
elimination, but there you go. I jumpered the Plextor as slave and the
Seagate
as master, and suddenly I don't have any detection or hard drive light
problems. I guess I will forever wonder whether it was the Seagate that
demanded to be master, or the new Plextor which wouldn't be anything other
than
a slave. Documentation for both doesn't provide a clue -- only that you
have
to jumper them correctly, of course.

Problem apparently solved. Thread closed. I'd like to know why it all
worked
after the scan but not on boot, however. But I'll take it as it goes.

Thanks

You're welcome Sam, glad it's working for you and thanks for posting back.

 

[Sam Spade]

You're welcome Sam, glad it's working for you and thanks for posting back.

I need to re-open this thread, I guess ...

After re-jumpering these two devices, as suggested, I seemed to have no
problems at first. But unfortunately I indeed do.

Specifically, I notice that Acronis TrueImage takes a *long* time now analyzing
drives when it initializes. I did not notice this at first, because I usually
have Aconris set on a schedule, and I don't usually see it initialize. But, at
the beginning of an automatic backup run, overnight, I got the following error,
the only one I've had in weeks now:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: IdeChnDr
Event Category: None
Event ID: 9
Date: 10/2/2006
Time: 3:01:42 AM
User: N/A
Computer: Snip
Description:
The device, \Device\Ide\IdeDeviceP0T1L0, did not respond within the timeout
period.

Never seen it before.

So I went and took a more thorough look at things in Device Manager. The
Plextor shows correctly (I believe) as the slave on IDE Secondary: Location 1
(1).

But the Seagate shows (I believe) incorrectly, as being on the Primary IDE
channel: Location 0 (0). This, of course, means that at least some part of
Windows XP thinks I have two drives at Location 0 (0). Moreover, Windows also
reports the slave on the Primary as Location 1 (1), which I *think* is the
Secondary, and is of course the same "Location" that the Plextor has.

Should not the Primary Master be 0 (0), the Primary Slave be 0 (1), the
Secondary Master 1 (0), and the Secondary Slave 1 (1)?

Everything *is* jumpered correctly. And the system bios knows what is what.

Moreover, everything works (I mean I have access to everything) ... except the
long delay when Acronis initializes, a delay that wasn't even present when I
had the Plextor as Master on the Secondary.

I've even switched the devices on the Secondary ribbon, trying both Master and
Slave at the end of the ribbon. It seems not to change anything.

What am I running into here?

Thanks ...