2 CD Drives did work now they do not

[garyedgar]

2 CD Drives did work now they do not

The read only cd and the read write cd worked last month. I attemped to to use them this week and found my friend had disconnected the ribbon cable to the mother board and the read write cd crive. Also had disconnected the power cord to both. I reconnected power and daisy chain cables to cd drives and motherboard. I do not know if there is a audio cable. My friend is not here to help or why he disconnected them. I have a Dell PC with Windows XP. Can you help? I am lost at this time my expertise is in the 70s so if you have a question about binary octal conversion TOS and donut memory etc I can answer.
Thanks
Old dude

[Nickster]

Umm, so where are you now? Do the drives power up (you can open them)? Do they appear in My Computer? They work but you have no audio??


Oh, can you help me with a token ring network? The ring is complete but none of the computers can access the server. By the way, I'm only kidding and I don't think token ring is quite that old is it? It's amazing what you'll get called to fix sometimes.

If you just need help with the audio, there should be a small round wire with a 4 prong connector on the ends. One end connects to your sound card or motherboard (built in sound) and the other to your drive. Far side of CD Drive opposite of the Power connection.

Nick

[garyedgar]

Sorry yes they power up and I can put in a cd and remove a cd but nothing happens. In My Computer there is a DVD drive F and local drive C but no other drives.
PS Nickster it looks like your token passing protocol is in error.
I hate Token Rings!!!!
Thanks
Olddude

[BipolarBill]

When you master/slave two drives together and the master fails, the slave fails too because it cannot operate without a master.

Try jumpering both drives as CS. You will need your reading glasses for this job!

[Nickster]

Originally Posted by garyedgar

I hate Token Rings!!!!

I couldn't agree more!!!

Not sure how the jumpers are set (usually next to the ribbon cable opposite the power cable). You can try Master on one and Slave on the other or you can use Cable Select (the one on end of cable will be Master and the other will be Slave). IIRC, been a while since I used the cable select option.

Try plugging one into the ribbon cable at a time. If both work separately then you know the drives are good. They may have been disconnected because one wasn't working.

You may also have the ribbon cable on one plugged in upside down (unlikely but possible with some drives), check to see if either one of the drives light is on constantly.

Notsoyoungdude,
Nick

[garyedgar]

Thanks to both of you. Sounds like a good plan of attack. I t will probable be a couple of weeks before I have time to try this but I will let you know the outcome. I’m going to take a nap now so you young whip-er snappers keep up the good work.
Thanks again
Olddude
P.S. I have about 2,000 Hollerith coded 80 column punch cards in excellent condition do you think anyone on ebay would buy them?

[Nickster]

Originally Posted by garyedgar

I have about 2,000 Hollerith coded 80 column punch cards in excellent condition do you think anyone on ebay would buy them?

Probably not but you never know, I've seen crazier things for sale on Ebay. I take it they haven't been punched right? lol, I'll check around with some of my computer friends (aka CompNuts). One of them might get the urge to code something on cards, they are a crazy bunch o computer history nerds.

With that, I'm sure you would find a buyer looking to put some in a picture frame or something and perhaps a few punched cards too for that matter.

Later,
Nick

[garyedgar]

I tried one drive at a time. Same problem. I did not try any jumpers settings.
Thanks for the help:
Good idea about the punch cards in a picture frame for ebay.
Olddude

[BipolarBill]

The jumper settings are critical. It is *not* plug and play. If there is one drive on the cable, it must be set as master or it won't work.