Problem with Adaptec Ultra ATA Card and Liteon DVD-Rom Drive

[Ignis]

So I'm using the Adaptec Ultra ATA Card (ASH-1233) in combination with a new Lite-On 16x DVD Reader (SOHD-16P9S).

I have tested the Adaptec card with 2 HD's, and it worked. I also tested the Lite-On drive by plugging it into the spot that my NEC burner is using, and it works. So both the devices work, but not together.

I set the Lite-on to master and plugged it into the end of the cable, and everything is good to go, just how the manual shows. Then, right after the bios loads, the card loads and shows the Lite-on is being detected.

But after that, it goes through the boot sequence, and does the whole "Boot from CD" text, and usually my computer flies over this in a second. But when I have the Lite-on installed with the card, it just stalls on this. I've gone into bios and changed the boot sequence to hard drive first, and even madeonly boot from the HD, and it still doesnt' work. I can either get "Boot disc failure! Please insert system boot disc and hit enter." or the frozen on "Boot from CD" text.

What gives?

[budz]

Make sure you have the jumper on the liteon dvdrom set to master.

[Ignis]

I've set it to master, cable select, and slave, just for the hell of it, and they all give the same result. I know it's suppose to go on master, I built this computer from scratch, I'm not that n00b to computers.

[budz]

I've set it to master, cable select, and slave, just for the hell of it, and they all give the same result. I know it's suppose to go on master, I built this computer from scratch, I'm not that n00b to computers.

I use a pci controller card that uses the silicon image 680 chipset. I use it in two of my computers which are connected to a dvd burner & dvdrom with no problems. Although when I had 2 BENQ 1640's on the controller card one of the drives did not work correctly so I removed one of them and put on the TOSHIBA dvd-rom. The drives then worked perfectly fine. Do you have another dvd-rom to test on that pci controller card? If you do test it out or borrow a dvd-rom from a friend. Then you'll be able to rule out the if your liteon dvdrom is defective or not.

There is a thread at CdFreaks.com regarding pci controller cards. Some have experienced using pci controller cards with the promise chipsets are not compatible with dvd burners/dvd-roms. But by using a Silicon Image 680 chipset dvd burners/dvd-rom's they are compatible with no problems. Although moderator redwudz has mentioned here he has had success using using a promise chipset controller card with a dvd burner.

[Ignis]

Do you have a link to that thread? I can't seem to find it.

I just switched my DVD Drives, put my NEC burner (the one that has been in my comp for over a year) on the PCI card and put the Lite-on in place of it. Lite-On worked, NEC was detected in start-up, but again, it stopped at "Boot from CD", same thing as Lite-On. It doesn't matter which drive I use, it always stops at the "Boot from CD" text. When I got the card to work before, it was with 2 hard drives, and they were on seperate cables attached to the card. Both were set on Master, the card has 2 spots for 2 cables. Maybe I'll try putting both drives on the card...hmm

If you find the link, I'd like to look at it. Thanks!

[lordsmurf]

Some have experienced using pci controller cards with the promise chipsets are not compatible with dvd burners/dvd-roms.

Burners, yes, that's true.
ROMs, no, that's generally false.

Ultra ATA cards were intended for hard drives and optical readers.
Burners are not supported, and will perform horribly, if at all.

[Ignis]

So even if I got my burner and my reader to run on the card, it wouldn't work worth a dam? Does anybody have any good links to read, I can't find anything anywhere about this kind of stuff.

[budz]

Ingis have you thought about your pci controller card could be failing? I didn't realize you had the pci controller card for a year. I replaced one of my pci controller cards 2 months ago when one of my dvd burners wouldn't appear. I'd purchase a new one and test it out with your optical drives. Computergeeks.com has cheap pci controller cards with the silicon image 680 chipset.

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=A-680&cat=CCD

Here's the link for the pci controller cards at Cdfreaks.com:

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=90930

[Ignis]

No, the PCI card is less than a week old. My NEC burner is a year old. And it's working fine. Thanks for the links!

[Ignis]

Well, I gave up trying to put any burners on the card. I switched my hard drive onto the card and put my 2 drives onto the primary IDE cable. I had to re-arrange all the cables in my box, ugg! But it all works now. It seems this card does not like optical drives, :/.

[redwudz]

Optical drives are 66Mhz (And a few 33Mhz) devices and hard drives are 100 - 133Mhz devices. Your card is listed as also working with 66Mhz devices, Most all 133Mhz only ATA cards won't work at all with the slower drives. In some cases, running the optical drives from the motherboard ATA channels is the best method.

You might have better luck with a different PCI ATA card, but if your new setup works, good enough.