CANT INSTALL MY DVD BURNER, HELP!!!

[scott015]

I bought the Pioneer -R and -RW yesterday... I think got a good deal, it was $229.... but I didnt realize the DVD Disks were so expensive... seems like they are about $3 each... i just bought a 5pack to play around with, but it was $15... where can I get cheaper ones?

anyway, i went home to install the burner, and it wouldnt fit.... i have 3 slots that a dvd/cd/etc rom could fit in.... my regular cdrw rom is in the top, and my harddrive is in the 3rd... so I was just gonna put the dvdrw in the middle... well it wont slide all the way it, its too long, it bumps the memory chips.... so only way it will work is it I take my cdrw drive out (it is too long for the 2nd or 3rd slot too).... so i figure what the heck... i took it out and put the dvd drive on the top and booted up computer... it wont boot... says i need a windows startup disk, then press any key.... well i didnt have one at home so I made one this morning at work.... anyway, when I put the cdrw drive back in, the computer boots fine.... so what do I need to do??? put in the boot disk and then what?? just system restore or something???

[rkr1958]

1.) One possible option to getting everything to fit is a new case.

2.) In terms of having problems with Windows recognizing your DVD-RW drive, any version of Windows from W98 to WinXP should automatically recognize your new DVD-RW drive if installed properly. The only thing you need to add is burning software. Are you using the IDE cable that came with the drive or the old one for the CD-ROM drive? If that's the case, you might try swapping out the IDE cables and using the newest one. Also, you might want to double check the power connection to the drive.

[mkelley]

Cheaper disks can be had pretty easily -- even Target sells them for $2 or so, and Best Buy runs many specials where the price is lower. If you buy online (as many of us do) you can routinely get good disks for under $2 (I use BeAlls which I buy in bulk for $1.50 per disk or so).

Check the jumper on both your DVD burner and your cdrw -- they should match. I'm thinking maybe your DVD burner has the jumper as either master or IDE recognize (whereas the cd drive was set to slave) and thus your system is trying to boot off the burner. Changing the jumper should fix this problem (IDE recognize would be okay as long as the drive was in the right position in the chain -- if your DVD burner is set to this make sure your cd drive was set to this as well).

[bdgriff]

I will second what MKELLY said. Be sure your Harddrive is set to master and your DVDrw set to slave and windows should recognize as a plug and play device. Also, just a thought, why don't you move your harddrive (which should be shortest) to the slot w/the memory modules, then put the remaining optical drives in. Assuming you have enough external openings. Good luck

p.s. you can get media at online places usually cheaper: meritline.com, allmediaoutlet, and supermedia are just a few...

[courtrrb]

First make shure that the jumpers match. If they do then it should work the same. If it dosn't I suspect that the drive is bad. (just had the same problem with another system I was working on - a brand new bad dvd drive) As far as fitting into the middle drive bay slot theirs not going to be much you can do, If it's a non-proprietary system with an ATX style case you should be able to move the rest of the hardware into a new case. Moving the motherboard away from the drive bays. I build system on the side and this is one of the reasone I tell eveyone to ethier stay away from proprietary system or special order them so that thay are easly upgraded. So that you don't have to replace the whole system to make an upgrade and is less expensive over time.

[scott015]

thanks, i didnt even think to look at the jumpers.... man!!! i bet that is it, now i got 8 more hours to try it out!!!!

by the way, are there any dvd disks to stay away from? i noticed some were cheaper than others... are the cheapys bad?

[mkelley]

You can go to the link on the left for media and real all about real world experiences. In general, you want to stay away from unnamed disks (truly generic disks). Even the name brands can have problems, so keep up on the threads here (a recent thread about memorex disks from meritline seemed to indicate to stay away from them).

The ones people use the most seem to be the Bealls, the Riteks, Verbatim, and TDK. But do the reading and homework, see what works for your burner, you'll be okay.

[scott015]

well im getting scared now that it may not be the problem, do dvd drives usually come out of the box with the jumper set to MASTER? that just seems kind odd to me....

what if, my whole system is set backwards... could it be possible that my harddrive is set to SLAVE and my original CD is set to MASTER... and my new DVD is also set to SLAVE... so when I removed the original CD I put in DVD and both DVD and HardDrive are both SLAVE.... would that cause the same problem?????

[mkelley]

First of all, don't worry about it until you check things out. Life is *way* too short -- if you get home and can fix it with a jumper setting all will be well. If not... well, then you post again.

I truly think this will solve it -- there are lots of reasons why the jumper could be wrong or causing you problems. Your symptoms of not being able to boot are just *too* coincidental. But let us know when you get home (most of us will still be here :>)

[overloaded_ide]

I also think you have a jumper conflict since the system doesn't want to boot either.

Have gotten cd burners set to master or slave. DVD burners are probably the same way. They have to just stick it on some where so it's there when they ship it

Actually, they just don't know where your gonna put the drive! Some people will run 1 hard drive and 1 burner on the same cable, so it's the slave. Others will run 1 HD and 1 burner on seperate cables and both are masters. HD is Master on ide 1 and burner is master on ide 2.
Then you have those of us that complecate things and have 2 hds and a cd burner and a DVD burner, so it's a crap shoot what is master/slave or ide 1 or 2. So at the factory they just kinda geuss at the best setting. Luckily we do not have to worry about jumbers for the ide channels

Also be sure to look at the label to see what the jumpers settings are!
Don't just look at the pins and say well it should be on the second set because the other drive was, it could be the wrong setting!
I have 2 Hds by the same maker in one of my systems and they changed the pins so for master on one drive is not the same setting for master on the other drive. SO different brands or devices can be any set of pins, they don't all use the second set or 3rd set as the same settings.

[trialsofg]

Recommendation: 1. ALWAYS jumper your boot drive to MASTER on IDE1. I would recommend leaving the DVDRW jumpered to MASTER, but put it on IDE2. In some cases, the IDEs will be 0 and 1, depends on Mobo. Adjust accordingly. Also, I have found that it makes a difference if you put the other optical drive on a different IDE cable than the one the DVD burner is on. Also, why leave the CDRW in the case? Doesn't the DVDRW also double as a CDRW? Just a thought...

[housepig]

first off, double check all your jumper settings, on both drives and the hard drive.

next, make sure you are putting the #1 pin of the cable on the correct side! (most cables are notched now so there's only one way to put it in, but I spent 90 minutes one time trying to figure out what was wrong with a new cd burner before realizing I had the cable in backwards)

do you have 2 ide controllers on your motherboard, or are you trying to run all three drives off the same controller?

if you have 2 controllers, I would set up the hard drive as the master on your primary controller, your dvd-r as the master on your secondary controller, and your cd-r as the slave on the secondary controller.

If you only have one ide controller, that might be your problem - I don't know if you can hang more than two devices on one ide controller.

I would put in the hard drive, boot and make sure everything boots up okay. Then install the dvd-r, boot, and make sure. Then install the cd-r and boot. Do it in stages, it'll be easier to determine what is horking your system.

As for cheap media, I bought a 50-spindle of generic discs from Meritline.com for $50, and I haven't hit a bad one yet (almost time to reorder, too....)

hope this helps. good luck.

[overloaded_ide]

Also, why leave the CDRW in the case? Doesn't the DVDRW also double as a CDRW? Just a thought...

Good point, but I look at it this way.
This is my main system and I want it for everything, I have others I can use for dedicated uses, but this is the one I travel with.

I paid almost $200 for a DVD burner, it records cds at 16X I think (could be faster, never burned a cd with it)

I burn far more cds than I do dvds, my Lite-on burner can be replaced for $50. It is a 52x burner though fastest I've burned with the cheap disks I buy is 48x. Average cheap disk burns about 32x.

Why wear out a $200 DVD burner writing cds at slower speeds when I can burn so much faster with a $50 burner? Also I use Cd roms and music cds alot, why burn up the DVD recorder playing CDS?

Actualy I was not real happy when I installed a new hard drive and had to remove the DVD player! 4 connections, 5 devices, (wonder why I chose the name?) so now I am planning to buy a Promise pci Ide controller so I can have 2 or More HDs, DVD player, DVD burner, CD burner (at least one).

$30-$40 DVD player is so I can do disk to disk copies, either DVD or CD, Play DVDs without wearing out the burner, and play audio cds while using the cd burner for data disks.

Though lots of people are happy to have one DVD drive, I am greedy and want it all

Well, actually I'm not that greedy, I do make disks for other people. Original recordings of local bands, home movie vcds, and other stuff people sometimes want several copies of. So I do burn lots of cds and don't want to go back to 16x or wear out the dvd burner either one.

I've already got people asking me about putting thier movies onto DVD and I don't even know how to do it yet really, though I did finnaly make 10 good ones in the last week after gettting a new program!
Kids ballgames, plays, weddings, family reunions etc.. There is a market for the service, now what should I charge for my hobbie, and will they pay for the service?

[trialsofg]

If you only have one ide controller, that might be your problem - I don't know if you can hang more than two devices on one ide controller.

No, you cannot put more than 2 devices on an IDE controller; so with two IDE controllers, 4 devices total. Any more would require an additional controller card. That's straight from the A+ certification guide.

[overloaded_ide]

Yea, that's why I gotta go with a pci controller too, 5 devices to use, only 4 can be connected

I was at newegg.com last night and they have a decent looking case for about $38 including shipping, I think it came with a 300watt P/s also.
Just incase you have to upgrade your case to fit the drive in.

[DeadLamb]

Same dvd-r and same problems for me tonight... (just got the dvr today)

Set up of the cpu before dvd-r got here...
IDE 1 Master boot drive
IDE 2 DVD-rom drive (master) CD-r (slave)
IDE 3 (pci card) 2 HD's (master/slave)
IDE 4 HD (master)

sooooooooooooooooo I was thinking that I could just move and run the dvd-r off IDE 4, set as the master and move this and that ect.. nope.. would not boot.. Moved it to slave and no boot.. tried all sort of things, even cable select and nothing worked.. sigh.. So ended up going to the cpu fix of --take it all out-- and add it back little by little..

for me, in my system it would ONLY take and boot with the dvd-r set as master to IDE2.. When I moved the DVD drive and CD-r to IDE4 it would boot but not see them.. sigh!?!?! WTF?!?! arrrgg!! (little venting)

In the end I got everything to work and it goes like this:

IDE 1 Master boot drive + a HD (slave)
IDE 2 DVD-r drive (master) DVD-rom (slave)
IDE 3 HD's (master) - cd-r (slave)
IDE 4 HD (master)

sigh.. but it all is running now.. So I wonder if the Pioneer a05 has to be on IDE 2 as a master? I mean I would guess if that was case more would have talked about that here or maybe one just can't run dvd / cd drives off a PCI controler card? Strange to say the least but I would suggest the first poster here to just go and take drives out to make sure your DVD-r works. Then look to add stuff back in..

Anyone else run into this big of a problem? I mean I'm sort of a geek and have a pretty good cpu background as just a hobby and I sort of got blind sided by this.. Eh oh well, at least I got it to work but some of you out there must have a Pio a05 (or a 4) set as something other then IDE 2 master and it works... Right?