Help with Cables to Install DVD burner on Dell E310

Hi Skip77,

Your system has two SATA ports, as shown in your service manual. If you already have two SATA devices, you cannot connect an SATA DVD burner without a separate SATA controller card.

As to what kind of SATA cable you need, I think the best approach would be to open up your case and check this yourself. It's hard to tell from the manual exactly what you'll need.

As for the second external hard drive, have you tried a different USB port? I'm not sure why it would slow down the entire system.

Thank you for the response. How can I tell whether existing hardware is already using a SATA port? Also - the computer had a DVD/CD drive but not burner when I bought it. Do I need to keep the original DVD/CD drive along with the new DVD/CD Burner or would it be better to remove the original and replace with new? Original drive is using different number of pins in its connection so I cannot use the same connections for the new drive regardless but I am wondering if the new DVD/CD burner will be able to do all the things the original drive was doing with added capability to burn DVD's? Should I install the new drive and keep original also or replace the original?

Really, it's as easy and opening up the system. If your system came with just the one DVD drive, it's probably IDE (wide flat cable), and there's no reason to remove it. When you add the SATA DVD burner, both drives should work perfectly fine.

Osprey4 - thank you for your help. I was able to get an adapter for the power supply so that I could connect the 15 pin end of power cable to back of dvd burner and the other end was a 4 prong male that I attached to the 4 prong female that was available. I also got a SATA cable and was able to get the new dvd burner connected to the remaining SATA socket on my mother board. I powered up the computer and found that the new drive opens and closes but the computer does not see or recognize the drive. I have the power supply connected thru the same power supply cord that goes to the original dvd/cd player so the power is shared I guess between the two. If the original is IDE, and I think it is because of the wide flat connecting wire - is this causing a problem with the new SATA burner sharing the same power supply line? I have double checked that the SATA cable is attached securely at both ends so I do not know what I need to do so that the pc recognizes the new drive. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Osprey4 - I found the new drive in setup and needed to enable it - i did that and the drive is now recognized and working. Thanks again - I'm good!

Thanks again Osprey4 - you got me over the hump and the drive is installed and working perfectly. I made a test dvd and played it on my tv last night - all systems go! Thanks again.