ide cable ribbon question

GJ02 · 6 Mar 2009 at 09:38

if i have an ide cable that goes from my mobo to the 2 dvd drives on my system, and the cable has 3 connectors, does each connector have to be plugged into the correct socket to make the drives work. ie does each connector serve its own porpose ? 1 for the mobo and 2 for the drives ? or do all the do the same thing
reason being, just built my antec 1200 up and realised the dvd drives dont work, they power but dont show up, the ide cable i used was installed in the way so it would reach, could i have these connectors mixed up ?

sorry im so crap at explaining :eek:

timmothy · 6 Mar 2009 at 09:59

Tonk said:
if i have an ide cable that goes from my mobo to the 2 dvd drives on my system, and the cable has 3 connectors, does each connector have to be plugged into the correct socket to make the drives work. ie does each connector serve its own porpose ? 1 for the mobo and 2 for the drives ? or do all the do the same thing
reason being, just built my antec 1200 up and realised the dvd drives dont work, they power but dont show up, the ide cable i used was installed in the way so it would reach, could i have these connectors mixed up ?

sorry im so crap at explaining

well i would say there is no wrong way around. i always plug my ide cable any which way and it has always worked, thing is if it is three connectors 2 will be much closer together and you usually use those two for the drives for convenience.

GJ02 · 6 Mar 2009 at 10:08

thats what ive done, but the drives dont show up, power up yes but no show up

baldzone · 6 Mar 2009 at 10:12

Try connecting one at a time?

Unless it's an old cable (or broken) it should be Murphy proof.

timmothy · 6 Mar 2009 at 10:20

Tonk said:
thats what ive done, but the drives dont show up, power up yes but no show up

well the ide cable has nothing to do with powering up thats the job of the power lead, so sounds like a faulty ide cable to me

deshepherd · 6 Mar 2009 at 10:28

Just a thought ... are both drives thinking they are the master drive on the cable. You may need to alter jumpers at back of drives to set one to be master and one to be slave. Can't remember if this actually necessary now as there may be a default mode where they work it out (think that's why IDE cables often specify one connector as being for master and one for slave) ... I always seem to do it manually by setting the jumpers - but this may just be out of habit!

GJ02 · 6 Mar 2009 at 10:30

problem sorted
gentle fingers here must not have pressed it in all the way
it had been a long 6am - 2am
many thanks

deshepherd · 6 Mar 2009 at 10:30

Another idea ... try connecting one at a time to see if they appear - if they don't then its almost certainly a bad cable - if they do then try each in both slots and note if they are reported as being master or slave on the IDE channel etc to try to see if that's causing a problem

deshepherd · 6 Mar 2009 at 10:33

Tonk said:
problem sorted
gentle fingers here must not have pressed it in all the way
it had been a long 6am - 2am
many thanks

Been there myself ... its normally the "simple" problem that is the cause but we always look for the complex solutions first!

baldzone · 6 Mar 2009 at 10:33

Tonk said:
problem sorted
gentle fingers here must not have pressed it in all the way
it had been a long 6am - 2am
many thanks

GJ02 · 6 Mar 2009 at 10:33

i knew it wouldnt be a huge problem as all i have done is put everything in a new case from the old case
im just to airy fairy with my fingers, scared to bend or break anything

thanks for the help tech support !! lol