STYMA, ROBERT E (ROBERT) wrote:
>>> Flip-flop mode: Setting the jumpers to master / slave on even a
>>> cable where pin 28 is used for signaling the Master / slave
>>> should always work. The fact that you have a cable setup for CS
>>>
> should not
>>> matter. Setting the jumpers seems to be best practice for
>>> predictability.
>>
>>
>> This has been my experience, also. But see another thread where
>> one fellow (who really seems to know his stuff) claims that using
>> a CS cable with Master/Slave jumpered drives does not always
>> work. I had one instance where that was the case.
>
> Same here! The failure was detected at the BIOS level.
>
I did have one machine where that was not the case. An old Acer 333
Mhz machine. When I added a second disk I set the jumpers to master
on one and slave on the other and it would not recognize the drives.
The Acer motherboard insisted on me setting both drives to CS to
work. I have not see that on more modern systems.
Bob Styma
I guess this is a known problem with older drives or drives from
different vendors. I found this excerpt and it refers to a pin other
than ground (pin-28).
Excerpt:
As long as one drive is jumpered as master and the other as slave, any
two IDE/ATA/ATAPI devices /should/ work together on a single channel.
Unfortunately, some older hard disks will fail to work properly when
they are placed on a channel with another manufacturer's disk
<http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/confJumpering-c.html#>. One of
the reasons why drives don't always "play nicely together" has to do
with the /Drive Active / Signal Present /(//DASP/) signal
http://www.pcguide.com/intro/fun/clock_Signals.htm
This is an IDE/ATA interface signal carried on pin #39, which is used
for two functions: indicating that a drive is active (during
operation), and also indicating that a slave drive is present on the
channel (at startup). Some early drives don't handle this signal
properly, a residue of poor adherence to ATA standards many years ago.
If an older slave drive won't work with a newer master, see if your
master drive has an "SP" (slave present) jumper, and if so, enable it.
This may allow the slave drive to be detected.
Drive compatibility problems can be extremely frustrating, and beyond
the suggestion above, there usually is no solution, other than
separating the drives onto different channels. Sometimes brand X won't
work as a slave when brand Y is the master, but X will work as a
master when Y is the slave! Modern drives adhere to the formal ATA
standards and so as time goes on and more of these older "problem"
drives fall out of the market, making all of this less and less of a
concern. Any hard disk bought in the last five years should work just
fine with any other of the same vintage or newer.
I guess blaming CS or master / slave jumpers is not that predictable. It
is interesting that a motherboard would insist on the unit being set to
CS. I wonder how that vendor would do this on a system board.
BTW - the CDROM burner that wanted to be master was an Acer also.
This discussion should at least let the originator of this thread
understand cabling, jumper settings, how CS works. Now to have grub
recognize the right drive to install onto.
Jim
--
We have nowhere else to go... this is all we have.
-- Margaret Mead
