CD-rom drive is detected as secondary slave instead of secondary master \ VOGONS

CD-rom drive is detected as secondary slave instead of secondary master

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First post, by JustRob

Posted on 2022-01-22, 18:32

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So, something weird. I don't know if this causes any problems, I haven't encountered any so far, but it confuses me and bothers me a little. I'm pretty sure in previous older PCs I've worked on, the CD-rom drive has always been the secondary master. I don't understand why my custom built Windows 98 PC sees it as secondary slave.

The way it's set up: I have a IDE to SD card adapter set up in IDE-1 as a hard disk replacement, with an 80 pin IDE cable with two connectors, one on each end. No extra ones in the middle. This one is recognized as the primary master as it should. Then I have my CD-rom drive connected to IDE-2 with a 40 pin IDE ribbon cable with three connectors, one on each end and one in the middle. But, I'm not using the middle connector, and the CD-rom drive is connected to the connector at the very end.

So I believe this is set up right, it's how I've always done it. So why is it that my BIOS detects it as the secondary slave instead of master?

Reply 1 of 8, by snufkin

Posted on 2022-01-22, 18:35

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What's the drive? Normally they have a jumper on the back to select M/S/CS.

Reply 2 of 8, by TrashPanda

Posted on 2022-01-22, 18:35

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Look on the back of the CD-Rom for a set of jumpers and change it to master, it should have it marked near the jumpers which is which .. or even printed on the sticker.

Reply 3 of 8, by Matth79

Posted on 2022-01-22, 19:00

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The drive might be in cable select, the end of a 40 pin CS cable selects slave, the drive will have a jumper block for MA, SL and CS - put the jumper to MA

Reply 4 of 8, by JustRob

Posted on 2022-01-22, 19:04

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Oh man, I had no idea these things had their own jumper... Rookie mistake. Thanks guys

Reply 5 of 8, by Datadrainer

Posted on 2022-01-22, 21:05

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What is important is that it's working now.
But that does not explain why the PC see it as the device 1 of the port when CS is selected as it is at the end of the cable. It should be auto-configured as device 0. Maybe there is a bug in the BIOS or the CD-ROM drive firmware... Or maybe it is the cable...

Knowing things is great. Understanding things is better. Creating things is even better.

Reply 6 of 8, by Plasma

Posted on 2022-01-22, 23:43

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Cable select can be implemented (or not implemented) multiple ways depending on the cable.

Reply 7 of 8, by JustRob

Posted on 2022-01-23, 01:35

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It wasn't on CS at all, the jumper was set on Slave. I just put it into master, so I haven't tried if CS actually works.

Reply 8 of 8, by Datadrainer

Posted on 2022-01-23, 10:07

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JustRob wrote on 2022-01-23, 01:35:

It wasn't on CS at all, the jumper was set on Slave. I just put it into master, so I haven't tried if CS actually works.

That explains it 😁

Knowing things is great. Understanding things is better. Creating things is even better.

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