Solved: New CD burner

Hi guys!

I have a Compaq Presario (model 5710). I have just purchased a CD burner (manufacturer BUSLINK). I am at a stand still as to how to connect it with the IDE cable. My Presario came with a CDrom drive, Floppy disk drive and a zip drive. When I installed the CD burner, I noticed that I have no place to plug the IDE cable...............now what??? A friend of mine claims that there is some kind of IDE cable that I can purchase and "piggyback" the new cable off the CDrom drive. Is that true and what is it called. If not, then what do I need to do.

 

You can have two devices connected to each ide cable for a total of four devices. Two devices for the primary ide channel (hard drive), two devices for the secondary ide channel(cdrom)
That is as long as the cables are going to different connectors on the motherboard. there are a few machines around that only have one ide connector so only two devices can be connected but I doubt you have one.

Look at the cables connecting the hard drive and cdrom, they should both have another connector on them which can be connected to the cd burner.

Jumpers must be set accordingly, each channel can only have one master device and one slave device.
Bios must be accessed to enable the new device on whichever ide channel you install it to, generally auto detect, or if that isn't an option, cdrom

 

I take it the cable going to your CD-ROM has only one connector. You can replace it with a cable with two connectors. All of the IDE connectors have the same 40 pins. Some have 40 wires and some 80. Check whether your CD writer specifies one or the other. Usually the 40 wire is cheaper and the better choice for CD-ROMs and CD writers unless the directions specify otherwise. You want an 18 inch IDE cable with connectors for two devices.

The CD writer has a jumper on the back which can be set to Master, Slave or Cable Select. Check the CD-ROM jumper. Compaq usually uses Cable Select rather than master and slave. If the CD-ROM is set to Cable Select set the CD writer to Cable Select as well. The device on the end of the cable becomes the master.

If the CD-ROM is set to master, check the manual for your CD writer to see whether it suggests master or slave. As BrianF says one has to be master and the other slave on the same cable if they are not cable select.