problem with Dimension 4550

You need to make the second harddrive slave to the first harddrive and the second cd-drive slave to the master cd-drive.  Your IDE device will always be slowed down by the slowest device on the channel.

Jeff

I have exactly as you're suggested

Primary - (Master) Hard Drive #1
(Slave) Hard Drive #2 or Zip Drive

Secondary (Master) DVD-RW
(Slave) CD-RW

everything is set to cable select (triple checked it)

even tries setting everything to master - slave on jumpers but that didn't help eighter

and it works fine on 4400 dimension

if I put it in 4550 dimension thats when problems starts

You installed a second hard drive and a CD-rom or was it a CD-RW?

Primary - (Master) Hard Drive #1
(Slave) Hard Drive #2 or Zip Drive

Secondary (Master) CD-RW/DVD-RW
(Slave) CD-ROM or DVD

Dell uses the CS (Cable select configuration)
The position on the IDE Ribbon cable determines Master or Slave
The End of the Ribbon cable is the master and the center position is the slave.

If you chose to use seperate Master/Slave jumper settings the position of the unit on the cable doesn't matter.
Make sure you set the Jumper pins on the back of the unit your installing to match the configuration of your computer...
If you chose CS(Cableselect) both devices on the line have to be set to cable select..

Most CD-RW burners want to be the MASTER in any setup!

---

Dimension 4500 - Pentium 4 - 2.0 GHz
WINDOWS XP
256 MB DDR SDRAM - Ultra ATA/100 (7200RPM) 80 GB HD
64 MB GEFORCE4 Video card with TV out
Soundblaster Live 1024 Voices Sound Card
16X DVD-ROM
10/100 PCI Fast Ethernet NIC
56K PCI Telephony Modem
Altec Lansing ACS33 ( 2 + Subwoofer (Front))
Harmon Kardon Speakers HK-206 (Rear)
17" E772 Monitor
Visioneer 5800 One Touch Scanner
Pacific Digital 32 X 12 X 48 CD Burner
Nero 5.5.9.9 - InCd 3.18.0
HP Photosmart 100 Printer/Card Reader
Epson Color 740 Printer
_________________________
Dimension L933r Pentium lll
384 MB SDRAM
Windows ME
CENDYNE 24X 10X 40 (Broken, Out for exchange)
48X CD-Rom
CTX 17" Flat View Monitor
Panasonic KX-P2023 Dot Matrix printer
Brother IC 100 Sheet Feed Scanner
Philips Video Camera
Sony 3.7GB Tape Drive
Iomega 100 MB Internal Zip
SanDisk Smartmedia Reader
Microsoft Optical (PS2) IntelliPoint Mouse
Newpoint 4 Port USB Hub
Telex M40 Microphone
AR Multimedia (2 + Subwoofer) Speaker

 

At this point you should call Dell tech support, If they can't fix the problem, it might be wise to send them back.

I tried setting it on Master - Slave and on cable select

Both ways did same thing

my slave cd-rw is so slow now that burnes cd in 11 minutes (instead of 3 minutes)

And it takes 10 minutes to transfer 200MB's from HD to HD

 

Guys, whoever got Dimension 4550 please check for yourself

Put something in second bay and try to transfer big file form it (200-300 MB's)

I wonder if anyone else has same problem.

 

But I put everything back to my 6 months old Dimenson 4400 and did exactly same settings and it works like a champ.

So it must be something wrong in 4550 series

 

Dell doesn't support configurations with two burners, so it is unlikely that Tech Support will do anything. As you stated, most burners want to be in the master position. That's probably why this CD burner is performing so slowly.

OK

Found what the problem is.

If you go to BIOS settings you'll see that IDE Primary and Secondary slot slaves are OFF

It was Auto in older systems.

You have to switch both to AUTO position and start computer.

Then you'll have to go to your harddrive configuration and go to properities of ATAPI/IDE controllers and change PIO (whatever it is) to DMA. Then restart your system.

It will work PERFECT after that.

When I called Tech Support they will never tell you to do this, they asked me to do many other (mostly stupid) things , then finally told me that they can't support this system, because it was upgraded. And they don't care why it doesn't work properly.

Very dissapointed with Dell Technical Support.

 

Did you turn on DMA for the new drives?

I know it's a silly question, but PIO mode could cause the symptoms you described

Instructions, if you need them Q310751

Message Edited by tart666 on 10-22-2002 07:02 PM

Hello,

I've same problem. I've nec 1100A as master in secondary channel and lg cdrom as slave in the same channel.

The cd rom runs at 8~10x and takes 100% cpu usage for that. (tested with Nero)

I've solved if for three times, but the same problem comes back again and again.

First solution was same as you, chage bios to auto. Then the speed came up to 40x and cpu usage about 32%. But in two weeks I was in same problem again.

Second solution was to switch jumpers to master and slave on each unit. (i am sure this is ok now). Two weeks later the same problem came back.

Third solution was upgrade bios from A06 to A08 (newest available). Dell recognices ide trouble with previuos versions.  This worked fine for one week.

Actually I've no more ideas to solve the problem.

I think the problem comes when I leave a cd into the drive and shut off or restart the pc. Next start no drive apears on MyPc. When you restart it again the drive comes back but with the speed problem.

Please can anyone test this and tell me other posible solutions?