Install question for DVD Writers

[LT9000]

I've got a Pioneer 111d and a BenQ 1650 I'm going to install shortly. I plan to make the Pio master and BQ slave off an 80pin ide. Is this an OK way to try it?

It's going into a Gateway 5058 - replacing the drives that came with it.

Any suggestions or things to watch out for appreciated.

[aedipuss]

looks fine. nothing much to worry about as long as the jumper pins are in the right places.

[redwudz]

It should work fine. Make sure you set the respective jumpers properly. Some computers use cable select instead of master/slave. If so, all drives have to be the same. I put the master at the end of the cable and the slave in the middle.

[budz]

It's good you're putting the PIONEER 111D as master because I tried hooking mine up as slave and drive wouldn't work correctly. Weird huh! BTW don't ever hookup 2 BENQ drives on the same IDE CABLE because one of the drives will not work correctly. This has been discussed before at the BENQ forum at CdFreaks.com.

[LT9000]

It's good you're putting the PIONEER 111D as master because I tried hooking mine up as slave and drive wouldn't work correctly. Weird huh! BTW don't ever hookup 2 BENQ drives on the same IDE CABLE because one of the drives will not work correctly. This has been discussed before at the BENQ forum at CdFreaks.com.

I've heard that, so the Pio is master.

BTW, should I only go w/ 1 of the install discs? The Pio reads:

Pio: 6614e BUILD#: CD9501 for Nero

When I tried to look at the BenQ Nero disc, it said drive w/ xxx serial number was not present, would not let me read it, and when I escaped I got an unkown illegal operation message.

Should I fetch the latest drivers for these drives ASAP after install?

And last, there's nothing wrong with a BenQ 1650 rebadged as a Norwood micro is there? That's what this BenQ drive is. Comp USA has them on sale for $40 after $20 rebate thru the 15th. Budz told me about it. It says Norwood micro on the box, but BenQ dw1650 right on the drive, so what could be wrong with that?

[DarrellS]

I thought it was recommended to have the.....

Boot drive as Primary Master
Storage drive as Secondary Master
CD-RW (DVD-RW) as Primary Slave
DVD-RW as Secondary Slave

Also what Redwudz said.

[budz]

It's good you're putting the PIONEER 111D as master because I tried hooking mine up as slave and drive wouldn't work correctly. Weird huh! BTW don't ever hookup 2 BENQ drives on the same IDE CABLE because one of the drives will not work correctly. This has been discussed before at the BENQ forum at CdFreaks.com.

I've heard that, so the Pio is master.

BTW, should I only go w/ 1 of the install discs? The Pio reads:

Pio: 6614e BUILD#: CD9501 for Nero

When I tried to look at the BenQ Nero disc, it said drive w/ xxx serial number was not present, would not let me read it, and when I escaped I got an unkown illegal operation message.

Should I fetch the latest drivers for these drives ASAP after install?

And last, there's nothing wrong with a BenQ 1650 rebadged as a Norwood micro is there? That's what this BenQ drive is. Comp USA has them on sale for $40 after $20 rebate thru the 15th. Budz told me about it. It says Norwood micro on the box, but BenQ dw1650 right on the drive, so what could be wrong with that?

Nothing wrong with the Norwood Micro rebadged BENQ 1650 from Compusa. As you mentioned it does say Benq 1650 on the drive so all is good. What firmware did the BENQ 1650 come with? You can check it by using CD/DVD SPEED version 4.51.
Download it from this website:
http://www.cdspeed2000.com/go.php3?link=download.html

The PIONEER 111D drive that you have came with a OEM version of NERO BURN version 6.6.14? I bought a retail PIONEER 111D drive from Best Buy which is model number 710 that came with a OEM version of NERO version 6.6.14. There is no need for any install disc to get any drivers for those 2 dvd burners. XP should automatically detect the drives after you've installed them.

Are you sure you set the jumpers correctly and used the correct IDE CABLES? I don't know about GATEWAY but DELL uses the CABLE SELECT IDE CABLE that should not be used if you've set the 2 burners up using the MASTER/SLAVE settings. I've had to replace the CABLE SELECT IDE CABLES from DELL pc's in order to use the MASTER/SLAVE settings to work with 2 dvd burners. Buy a new 80pin IDE CABLE and install that to see if your pc will recognize the 2 dvd burners. Also check your BIOS to see if the drives are recognized in there as well.

[LT9000]

"The PIONEER 111D drive that you have came with a OEM version of NERO BURN version 6.6.14?"

Yes.

"Are you sure you set the jumpers correctly and used the correct IDE CABLES? "

The drives are not in yet. I'll try that TU if possible. I'm just trying to figure out the best way to go about the install.

I wonder if this Gateway has the burner and DVD rom set up as master/slave?

[budz]

"The PIONEER 111D drive that you have came with a OEM version of NERO BURN version 6.6.14?"

Yes.

"Are you sure you set the jumpers correctly and used the correct IDE CABLES? "

The drives are not in yet. I'll try that TU if possible. I'm just trying to figure out the best way to go about the install.

I wonder if this Gateway has the burner and DVD rom set up as master/slave?

Only way to find out is to open up that Gateway pc and see how it's set up.

[bevills1]

DarrellS, optical drives should be on controller separate from hard drives. For a 2 optical drive, 2 hard drive system the boot drive should be primary master and storage drive primary slave, and optical drives should be secondary master and secondary slave as desired by user or as necessary for normal functioning of the optical drives. Placing optical drives on same controllers with hard drives will slow hard drive performance.

[DarrellS]

Well, I've seen three different ways to hook them up and and the common recommendation seems to be whatever suites the users needs.

When I posted the message the other day, every link I found recommended the way that I posted. Tonight I couldn't find hardly anything.

Here are a couple of links that say pretty much the same thing "whatever suits your needs" and "buy an extra controller card and keep the Boot Drive separate if you can".

http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Guides/buildyourpc/6.html

http://www.storagereview.com/guide2000/ref/hdd/if/ide/confRecommendations.html

I installed a SATA drive for extra storage and bought new cables a couple months ago and when I hooked the cables up your way, I couldn't get my machine to run right at all. I put the old cables back in and set it up the way I had it before and I haven't had any problems since. Not sure exactly what the problem was but I'll keep it as it is.

[redwudz]

I've never noticed any slowdown or problems with my hard drives with putting a optical drive on the same channel as a hard drive. Maybe with some older controllers. I normally put the opticals on a separate channel, but I usually put a second HD on the primary channel as a slave along with the boot drive. Unless you have a very slow bus speed, the controller should have no problem keeping up.

AFAIK, you can put them anywhere you want these days. I always tend to reserve the boot for the primary channel, Device 0, but that is more a problem with some programs looking for the boot drive and expecting it as 'C'. Most modern controllers could care less if you share a channel with a 66Mhz device and a 133Mhz device, in my experience.

You can give it a test if you like. Check your throughput with the DVD burner as secondary master, then change the cables around and try it as primary slave and see what you come up with.

I would say it might be a good practice to put your opticals on a different channel, but not a requirement.

[budz]

I had a pc with (boot drive) hd set to primary master with a dvd-rom as primary slave. Then a dvd-burner on secondary master with another hard drive used as storage on secondary slave. I didn't have any slow downs as others have mentioned.

Optical drives like dvd burners don't work well with PROMISE IDE CONTROLLER CARD's. Some have reported they work but my experience has been to only use SILICON IMAGE CHIPSET 680. This has been discussed at CdFreaks.com.