Why wont my MDD recognize super and combo drives?

[poolin1243]

Ok so my MDD 1.33/1.4 is on the fritz. It has two optical drives installed, one superdrive, one combo drive. ive tried siwting their positions in the bay, and thaat works for ONE startup, but after that it doesnt recognze either of them. if i unplug the slave one, it works, but only with one drive and i want both working...

anybody?
thanks!

 

[mad jew]

Have they ever worked properly?

Assuming it's not a power issue or some such hardware problem, I guess you could start by resetting the PRAM.

 

[poolin1243]

pram reset does not help. both drives work just fine.

 

[frankblundt]

did you check the jumpers on the drives? - easiest is to set both to CS (cable select) and let the IDE cable put the master on the end and the slave the next down (or jumper them as M and S for those positions)

 

[poolin1243]

i did fiddle with that a bit...do tell more? right now the top drive-black cable is set to master then bottom one is set to slave (SL)...should i jus set them both to CS?

 

[frankblundt]

yeah, worth a try anyway - it's certainly easier that way - although i'm reasonably sure that what you've got is right (black = master, grey = slave).
they are both on the same IDE ribbon (coming off the secondary IDE controller on the board)?
sometimes the labelling for where the jumpers go on drives can be confusing..

 

[ReanimationLP]

Its highly recommended to have them on cable select.

 

[poolin1243]

k ive tried cable select and that does not work. should i swap the drives and try it again with the other one on top(black cable) etc.?

 

[frankblundt]

it's beginnning to sound like a hardware issue - i take it if you drop the drive connected to the slave it works?
if it doen't matter which of the two drives you put on master and they both work ok (without a drive on slave), but any combination fails with a slave drive, it sounds like a problem with:
either the cable (common enough failure point - they are pretty fragile, don't like to be twisted or bent repeatedly) - which is easy to test by replacing it (don't bother routing it in behind for testing purposes)

or more seriously, a problem with the IDE controller on the board

 

[poolin1243]

ok that will be my next test for sure. where do i pick up one of these cables?

 

[frankblundt]

any decent computer parts place should have them - just make sure you get a cable-select ide cable - there are old ones that don't. They're a standard IDE cable, not Apple specific (i think - i don't have a MDD myself)

 

[poolin1243]

well its the cable-

i pulled the IDE from the secondary Hard drive section, and plugged it in where the Optical IDE goes, both drives worked...even after restarts.

so...all i gotta do is find one in milwaukee..bah!