sambs0, I have had a CDROM connected to the secondary, and it seems to be working well.. I'm positive jumper setting were correct too.
Weird aye?

(in reply to david b)

Yuuup, indeed![8)]

(in reply to david b)

***update***

my drive seems to be working with relatively no problems. What i ended up doing was changing the settings for the CD and hard drive under the control panel. For the controllers for primary and seconday i channged them from DMA mode to PIO. I dont know what difference it makes, but i havent burned a coaster yet. I also made sure to have the change made for the CDRW and ROM as well.
I also made a change under the BIOS, but i dont remember what it was i changed there. I havent tried resolving it any further than this either to see if i can enable any of the three changes i made.

My computer, however, does run a little slower in its tasks i.e. accessing things and opening files, but thats a far cry from making coasters and reinstalling the operating system multiple times.

If this helps anyone, great!!!

(in reply to david b)

To david b and Marixis:

It appears to me that you guys are having problems with EIDE (bus master) drivers. Accidentally, do you have a VIA chipset?
I've already seen somewhere on the forum similar to yours complains and successful resolution upon updating the VIA drivers.
Worth trying, ha?

As for the PIO versus DMA modes, the former is definitely slower, especially when it comes to hard disk performance. There is a good article by Laffin_Assassin somewhere on the forum to explain the difference between the two modes but I think you can take this as given.

(in reply to david b)

For the guys with problems: What motherboards and processors are you running? Let us see if we can put some info together.

(in reply to david b)

Im running an AMD thunderbird 1.0 ghz on a Abit kt7a. ( the first board, i know there has been a released revision to this board, as i installed that one in my sons computer. I believe it is a VIA chipset with an AWARD bios ( if that even matters)

I know i should update the VIA drivers, but as it goes if its not broke, dont fix it. Although i should, because im not running at full spec for my system. Since the cd burner works w/ no problem. Im almost tempted to let the problem be as it is. If i update the drivers and switch back to DMA mode, i should be able to roll those drivers back and go back to pio mode if there are any problems??

I used to have problems with Win XP Pro when i had my cheapo Creative CDRW 8x4x32. XP decided it didnt like it and wouldnt run it without the BSOD.
I need a second computer so i can torture this one w/o no loss of gaming or anything.

(in reply to david b)

"I need a second computer so i can torture this one w/o no loss of gaming or anything."
Well, what you gotta do - you gotta do.[^]

"I believe it is a VIA chipset with an AWARD bios ( if that even matters)"
It does!

In end of the ends, if you can more or less happily survive with hard disk(s) running in PIO, rather than DMA, mode, why not to?! This would close the case.

But please consider the next picture. You leave your house onto a street of PC users of all the variety of knowledge and experience in the matter. And you tell them, just by the way, that are running system without wish to implement the available updates and upgrades but do have some issues...
Well, if I had heard that, I'd say: there is something wrong with either your PC or you, I'm sorry of saying this.

It may be already over for the existing PC but when buying a new one, you should ask yourself: "What's the reason of getting a cheapo stuff? To constantly carry out time losses at all the times because it's impossible to get best out of it? To handily have a subject for over the WEB discussions?".[:0]

(in reply to david b)

I have a FIC AZ11E mobo w/ an AMD Athlon 900Mhz
This mobo has a VIA chipset (KT133)

(in reply to david b)

I will update the Via drivers tonight, and try writing with the cd writer hooked up to the secondary IDE channel. I'll let you all know how it goes.. :)

(in reply to david b)

I know how this sort of thing can be frustrating. I am glad you have it sorted out, and thanks for the update....

(in reply to david b)

I often think I could never be more frustrated again after a problem with my pc - but then something like this happens again and again and again...! At least I'm learning something.

I updated the Via drivers and connected my lite on back to my secondary ide channel along with my CDROM drive and tried a couple of burns. Everything worked fine.

sambs0, thanks for suggesting the Via chipset, this was obviously the problem.

(in reply to david b)

To david_b:

Good to hear you are all set now! And thanks for the feedback!

(in reply to david b)

to Marixis:
Notice that David b has updated his VIA 4 in 1 drivers and everything works fine now!
If you do not want to upgrade them, then you can at least make
your primary IDE controller DMA as that one only has your Hard Drive (your burner should be on your Secondary IDE)
and that will speed up your system.

(in reply to david b)

I have a similar problem, but no the same.


I have a new 52x24x52 to replace my Ricoh 6x4x12, and I spent 8hrs over the weekend trying every combination of drivers, uninstalling and reinstalling software, updating BIOS, checking firmware, trying different combinations of slave/master, verifying that DMA was set correctly, etc. Everything short of reinstalling the OS. And this drive will not work with this computer. The asus cd-rom can read correctly, but the lite-on always just shows an empty drive, even with no disk inserted. (it doesnt ask for one like it should) I even bought a second drive to verify that the problem was not the drive. If I plug in my old Ricoh 6x4x12 it works correctly.

The one thing I have not tried is to try it on the primary channel with my HD. I will try that tonight, but the latest drivers did not help.

My system:
Windows XP Home
AMD 1.4Ghz
Epox 8KTA3 (VIA KT133A chipset)
384 mb ram
40G IBM Deskstar
SB Live Value

(in reply to david b)

Well moving it to the primary channel did not help.

(in reply to david b)

I just wanted to make sure that you updated your via drivers too? There's a 4in1 driver upgrade you can download if you haven't (http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=2).

(in reply to david b)