Phillips DVD ROM causing problems

Complete amatuer here.:-D

I've got a PC from my Dad - it's second hand, from his work. The DVD ROM drive has never worked (but the CD drive has), so I cannibalised my old PC's Phillips DVD ROM rewritable, which has always worked fine. However, after installing it, the PC wouldn't recognise either the CD or DVD ROMs, then after a reboot Windows XP got stuck on the intro screen (black background, windows logo, little flashing "loading" bar.).

BIOS said the DVD ROM was Atapi incompatable. So I've disconnected the DVD ROM, Windows is back to normal, and the CD drive is also back.

The DVD drive was installed on the second plug on the ribbon, the "slave", with the CD as Master.

Is there any way I can install the DVD ROM (drivers needed, etc), without Windows going bananas? I'm puzzled why it worked on one PC with Windows XP, and not my current one with the same OS!

 

Probably both ROM drives' jumpers are set to Master and are confusing BIOS or XP. There should be little markings on the back of the DVDROM that show how the jumpers should be set. Usually M(master) S(slave) or CS(cable select). If you are connecting the DVD as slave it should have its jumper set to slave and be on the second plug on the ribbon. You may need tweezers to grab hold of the jumper.

A jumper just connects two pins. The one in this picture is set to Master.

 

Aha! Right, will try that now. Good job I pluck my eyebrows... roflmao

Will be back soon (I hope!) and let you know how I got on.

 

IT WORKED! Thank you - you have my undying gratitude! Amazing how such a simple little thing caused such a big problem, but that's usually how it goes. XD

 

I'm glad it was fairly simple.

I didn't want to confuse things earlier but in case you have problems watching/writing DVDs later I thought I would add. Just a note that it is usually recommended that the newest drive be set to Master. So if your DVD drive is definitely much newer or faster than the CDROM you might want to switch their positions on the cable (which of course would involve moving their jumpers to match their new positions). You don't have to do it now and you may not experience any problems but I thought it couldn't hurt to let you know that this is generally recommended as standard procedure when installing a new ROM device.

Good Luck!