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Burnination Achieved!
I drove out in the blinding rain this evening to purchase myself a CD-burning drive. It's one of those things that I've been telling myself I needed to get, but putting off for no good reason. I checked the ad for Best Buy and discovered they were selling one that, after rebates, was $20. They also had a stack of 50 CD-Rs for $3, after rebates. I was a bit hesitant about this, since "you get what you pay for," but I found it hard to rationalize buying a different one simply because it cost more. Anyway, I got the last one on the shelf and brought it home to my tired old PC.
I cracked open the case and discovered that there were impenetrable steel plates preventing me from actually installing the drive. What the hell? Is there a good reason for that? Can any of you hardware-savvy people out there let me know if my computer is going to burst into flames because I ripped one of the plates out and put the drive in anyway? Are those 3 empty slots on the front of the case just there to taunt me, and they really shouldn't be used?
Anyway, like I said, I ripped out one of the plates (literally, since they seemed to be welded in), discovered that the cables wouldn't reach properly, tried to remove them from the other CD drive so I could wire things properly, and discovered that they were in there too tightly for me to extricate them without risking damage to components and/or to my hand. Fine. I moved the old drive to the new slot and put the new drive in the old slot, since that configuration means the cables all reach. Of course, this means I don't have it wired in the "optimal configuration" that the manual requested, but it still seems to be permissable.
I screwed everything in, put the case back on, put the tower back on its stand, plugged everything back it, and fired it up. It successfully detected the drive, and I thought I might be home free for a moment. Wrong. The floppy drive failed. Now, this may seem trivial at first, but you need to understand that I recently acquired an antique digital camera that needs the floppy drive. I tried to poke at software things to see if it was hardware fighting for configuration issues, but couldn't get anywhere. So I finally gave in and unplugged everything, took the case down, and ripped it open again. Sigh.
Looks like I accidentally unplugged the power to the floppy drive while hooking things up. Or so I hoped - I thought it would sort of suck to hook up a power cable to something that it actually wasn't supposed to be attached to, after all. Still, it seemed to be the likely problem. I closed it back up, put it back, plugged everything in, and officially launched Attempt #2. Success!
The final test - does the drive actually work. Apparently, yes. I burned my first CD, and it seemed to go smoothly. Yah! On the down side, my fingers smell like metal now, a situation that I seem to be unable to resolve just using soap and water. Fooey.
In fact, my hands are extremely unhappy right now. In addition to the indignities of computer upgrading, they also had to suffer through Stikfa assembly as well, since I found the Warrior Monk while I was out. It's awesome! I just wish my fingers didn't hurt so much after putting one of those things together, though.
I cracked open the case and discovered that there were impenetrable steel plates preventing me from actually installing the drive. What the hell? Is there a good reason for that? Can any of you hardware-savvy people out there let me know if my computer is going to burst into flames because I ripped one of the plates out and put the drive in anyway? Are those 3 empty slots on the front of the case just there to taunt me, and they really shouldn't be used?
Anyway, like I said, I ripped out one of the plates (literally, since they seemed to be welded in), discovered that the cables wouldn't reach properly, tried to remove them from the other CD drive so I could wire things properly, and discovered that they were in there too tightly for me to extricate them without risking damage to components and/or to my hand. Fine. I moved the old drive to the new slot and put the new drive in the old slot, since that configuration means the cables all reach. Of course, this means I don't have it wired in the "optimal configuration" that the manual requested, but it still seems to be permissable.
I screwed everything in, put the case back on, put the tower back on its stand, plugged everything back it, and fired it up. It successfully detected the drive, and I thought I might be home free for a moment. Wrong. The floppy drive failed. Now, this may seem trivial at first, but you need to understand that I recently acquired an antique digital camera that needs the floppy drive. I tried to poke at software things to see if it was hardware fighting for configuration issues, but couldn't get anywhere. So I finally gave in and unplugged everything, took the case down, and ripped it open again. Sigh.
Looks like I accidentally unplugged the power to the floppy drive while hooking things up. Or so I hoped - I thought it would sort of suck to hook up a power cable to something that it actually wasn't supposed to be attached to, after all. Still, it seemed to be the likely problem. I closed it back up, put it back, plugged everything in, and officially launched Attempt #2. Success!
The final test - does the drive actually work. Apparently, yes. I burned my first CD, and it seemed to go smoothly. Yah! On the down side, my fingers smell like metal now, a situation that I seem to be unable to resolve just using soap and water. Fooey.
In fact, my hands are extremely unhappy right now. In addition to the indignities of computer upgrading, they also had to suffer through Stikfa assembly as well, since I found the Warrior Monk while I was out. It's awesome! I just wish my fingers didn't hurt so much after putting one of those things together, though.
no subject
Did you get some of those weird metal tracks that clip onto the side of the drive to help hold it in the bay? I'd found some those in my old box of stuff that came with the computer, and I had no idea what they were for until I got the new drive.
If the "optimal configuration" it's talking about it just a question of which physical slot the drive is in, I don't think it matters even a little tiny bit. All the communication with the computer happens over the cables, the drive bays are just there to physically hold the device. Heck, the last time I upgraded my computer I transferred the contents of my old hard drive by opening both cases and plugging the hard drive cable from the old computer into the motherboard of the new computer. It worked just fine.
And, yeah, the floppy drive needs power, and it's easy to accidentally dislodge the cables. I don't think there's anything that's set up to accept the power cables that could be damaged by plugging them in.
Not that I'm a real hardware expert - if the magic smoke starts coming out I won't be much help.
no subject
It's not that the new drive needs a particular bay, it's just that it wanted to be Master of the Secondary IDE thingy. It's going to have to settle for being Slave of the Secondary IDE thingy, though.
Thankfully my case seems to already have the metal tracks to suspend things in their slots. It's astonishing! That's probably the first positive thing I've been able to say about my computer!
And yes, the metal plates were held in place by small contact points. I haven't suddenly developed Herculean strength which I can use to tear apart thick pieces of metal with my bare hands. I still have to use my freakish mental powers for that.
no subject
The metal tracks I was thinking of clipped onto the side of the drive itself, then slotted into existing tracks in the case. They're the bits with the extended metal parts that you can squeeze to remove the drive from its bay.
As I recall, I used the power of metal fatigue to remove a plate to insert the drive. Then kicked myself when I found out that I had to take out the old DVD drive.
CD Burninator
I suspect there are other factors that will limit the rate at which you burn CDs. So it sounds like you made a good investment with the $20.00 one.
Like unferth said those plates are nothing to worry about. You could take them all out if you wanted. Of course then the top sides will cave in and form a nice point.
Floppy, Hard Disk, and often even CD-ROM power cables are all different. Plus they have little tabs that usually prevent you from hooking them up wrong. The IDE connectors for the communication also usually have centerline guides to keep you from hooking them up wrong. Depends on how cheap the cable is. ;)
Re: CD Burninator
Wish I'd known...
Re: Wish I'd known...
Re: Wish I'd known...
Trogdar burninates
I know, I know, a silly question to ask a person who knows that AOL is to computers as tentacles are to pubescent animated Japanese girls, but I will petend it is valid until you tell me otherwise.
Re: Trogdar burninates
I've got Yahoo instant messagy thing, but I don't have it actually turned on unless I know ahead of time that I'll be talking to someone.