Expert: Roy Bonner - 10/31/2006

Question
I just got my DVD burner and put it in my hardrive.  I connected teh two cables and turned on my computer but it doesnt show up on my computer.  It doesnt show it on my computer or on add hardware.  What do i do?

Answer
Hi Eli,
First, you must check the setting on the rear of the drive. There is a 'jumper',(a plastic cap which joins two pins together), which will be set to one of 3 positions, MA - Master, SL - Slave or CS - Cable Select, for a DVD writer this should be MA - Master. Second, you need a separate cable, (Standard 40 wire IDE cable), to connect the drive to the secondary IDE port on the motherboard, use only the two end connectors, NOT the middle one, and make sure that the cable is the right way round (the pin 1 side is marked on the cable).Third, go into the BIOS setup, and ensure that the secondary IDE channel is enabled.
Fourth, if you got steps 1 through 3 correctly, switch on the system and the drive will be showing.

Regards

Roy